Slide death toll hits 90

From intact bodies and body parts recovered, the death toll as of Thursday from the landslide over a week ago in the mining village of Maco, Davao de Oro, has reached 90, Leah Añora of the Maco town dead and missing cluster told reporters.

With the additional fatalities confirmed, the number of missing people dropped to 37, while the death toll is expected to rise some more in the coming days.

But aside from the dead, the local government has to take care of the living who were affected by the disaster.

Dr. Lycel Kaye Alaba of the Maco municipal health office said medical missions in nine evacuation centers are ongoing.

Alaba said that from 9 to 14 February, the leading illnesses recorded at the evacuation centers were hypertension, cough, fever and headache.

Meanwhile, Dr. Headyn Cenabre of the provincial veterinary office said that as of Wednesday, 27 dogs and 23 cats were rescued in Barangays Masara and Mainit.

The dogs at the evacuation centers were vaccinated and given food and nutritional supplements.

“We will continue the animal rescue. So far, we have seen many stray dogs. Some of them were hungry and some were scared. If there are human survivors, there are also animal survivors,” Cenabre said.

The rescued animals, including 127 dogs, are currently sheltered in an impounding facility in the town of Mawab.

Cristy Epe from DepEd Davao de Oro said that seven schools were affected, of which six were public and one was private. The number of learners affected stood at 4,333, of which 4,097 were from public schools.

Non-teaching and teaching personnel affected totaled 182, of whom 149 were from public schools and 33 were from private schools.

According to Epe, they have a program called “Tuloy Kaalaman” to cater to learners who were evacuated to different schools.

“These are reading, math, and science subjects that need to be prioritized. In between, the other subjects would come in like MAPEH and TLE to break the monotony of instruction,” she said.

She added that the affected learners receive psychological first aid and psychosocial services for the trauma brought on by the disaster.

On Wednesday, disaster officials shifted to search and retrieval operations from search rescue and retrieval, or SRR, operations to expedite the rescue efforts at ground zero in Barangay Masara.

Ten teams were deployed to Masara on Thursday to conduct search and retrieval operations, utilizing six excavators and nine dump trucks.