PORT MORESBY
\nSupplies of food and medicine began arriving at the scene of a deadly landslide in Papua New Guinea Wednesday, with aid workers discovering children rendered mute by the shock of the disaster.
\nPapua New Guinea\u2019s government estimates that as many as 2,000 people may be buried underneath a massive landslide that struck a thriving highland settlement in Enga province in the early hours of May 24.
\nOnly six bodies have so far been pulled from the mountain of churned-up earth after days of frantic digging with makeshift tools.
\nDifficulties getting aid and supplies to the site \u2014 and the speed of the government response \u2014 has stoked a mix of desperation and frustration on the ground.
\nCommunity leader Miok Michael said that 19 of his \u201cfamily members and relatives\u201d were missing and feared dead.
\n\u201cThe relief support and donations are slowly reaching the affected site,\u201d said Michael, who recently visited the disaster zone.
\n\u201cBut displaced people are still crying and calling for help. There is no proper house for them to sleep, all their houses were buried.\u201d
\nWith rescue teams abandoning hope of finding survivors under the meters of mud and rubble, the community has started to count the emotional and physical cost.
\nMourning locals have started carrying the dead away in immense \u201chaus krai\u201d funeral processions, collective outpourings of love and grief that can last for weeks.
\nImages showed a group of men carrying a wooden casket down the forested valley on their shoulders as scores of mourners trailed behind them, wailing with despair.
\nAid groups fear children will bear the brunt of the catastrophe, estimating that 40 percent of residents in the area are younger than 16.
\n\u201cWhat we are hearing is that, because of what they saw and experienced, many of the children have stopped talking,\u201d Justine McMahon from CARE Papua New Guinea said.
\nNiels Kraaier from UNICEF Papua New Guinea said workers were aware of nine orphaned children.
\nUNICEF said it had started distributing rudimentary hygiene kits of buckets, jerrycans and soap, while World Vision said food, shelter, blankets and mosquito nets remained immediate needs.
\nHowever, full-scale rescue and relief efforts have been severely hampered by the site\u2019s remote location, nearby tribal violence and landslide damage that has severed major road links.
\nThe collapse of bridges along the sealed road to the site has forced lengthy detours for some aid convoys.
\nPapua New Guinea\u2019s military tried for days to bring heavy earth-moving equipment to the site.
\nBut, with a series of bridges in a state of disrepair or damaged by earlier floods, they have now abandoned that plan and will source equipment from mines and businesses. That equipment will arrive at the landslide by Thursday at the \u201clatest,\u201d UN migration agency official Serhan Aktoprak said.
\nProvincial leaders have implored the government to declare a national emergency that would draw attention to their plight and free up resources.
\n\u201cI am not equipped to deal with this tragedy,\u201d provincial administrator Sandis Tsaka said.
\nPrime Minister James Marape is yet to visit the remote pocket of Enga province more than five days after the landslide.
\nHe has stayed in the capital Port Moresby, where his government is trying to fend off a no-confidence motion that could sweep it from power.
\nThere are concerns this political manoeuvering has drawn attention away from what could be one of the country\u2019s worst natural disasters.
\nMarape told parliament on Wednesday that the village of Yambali was \u201cno more.\u201d
\n\u201cNature, through a disastrous landslip, submerged or covered the village and from our initial estimation over 2,000 people would have perished in this disaster.\u201d
\n\u201cIn this year, we have had extraordinary rainfall that has caused flooding in river areas, sea level rise in coastal areas, and landslips in a few areas,\u201d Marape said.
\nPapua New Guinea is one of the world\u2019s most disaster-prone regions and landslides are extremely common in its highlands.
\nGeologists believe recent heavy rain may have contributed to the slide.
\n\u201cPapua New Guinea sits right on a plate boundary, where these large, rigid parts of the earth plow into each other,\u201d University of Adelaide geologist Alan Collins said.
\n\u201cThis creates mountains, steep slopes and other extreme topography.
\n\u201cYou have these steep slopes located in an area of heavy rainfall, and this can rot the minerals in the rocks, and gradually weaken them.\u201d
\nThe World Bank and others have warned that landslides were likely to increase in Papua New Guinea due to a growing population and uncontrolled land use.
\nScientists have also warned that climate change will cause more extreme rainfall across most parts of the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PORT MORESBY Supplies of food and medicine began arriving at the scene of a deadly landslide in Papua New Guinea Wednesday, with aid workers discovering children rendered mute by the shock of the disaster. Papua New Guinea\u2019s government estimates that as many as 2,000 people may be buried underneath a massive landslide that struck a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":409653,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-409641","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n