Ellington

A big day for prayers. AP is reporting:

A rain-soaked mountainside disintegrated into a torrent of mud in the eastern Philippines on Friday, swallowing hundreds of houses and an elementary school in sludge three stories high. At least 23 bodies were recovered, but 1,500 people were missing and feared dead.

The farming village of Guinsaugon on Leyte island, 420 miles southeast of Manila, was virtually wiped out, with only a few jumbles of corrugated steel sheeting left to show that the community of some 2,500 people ever existed.

"It sounded like the mountain exploded, and the whole thing crumbled," survivor Dario Libatan told Manila radio DZMM. "I could not see any house standing anymore."

Southern Leyte province Gov. Rosette Lerias said: "There are no signs of life, no rooftops, no nothing."

Two other villages were inundated, and about 3,000 evacuees were at a municipal hall.
"We did not find injured people," said Ricky Estela, a crewman on a helicopter that flew a politician to the scene. "Most of them are dead and beneath the mud."

The mud was so deep - up to 30 feet in some places - and unstable that rescue workers had difficulty approaching the school, which was in session when the landslide occurred between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m.

Lerias told the British Broadcasting Corp. the school had 246 students and seven teachers. Only one child and one adult had been recovered.

About 100 people also were visiting the village for a women's group meeting.