Mina triggers fatal avalanche of garbage in Baguio City

(Updated 8/29/11, 7 p.m.) Baguio residents are usually on the lookout for landslides or falling rocks. No one at the height of Typhoon Mina was expecting the enormous pile of garbage unleashed by a collapsed wall of the flooded Irisan Dumpsite. At least five people, two of them known to be children, were buried alive, their bodies later retrieved. Three fatalities were identified as Apolinario Flores, 10; Revillar Flores, 13; and Jestoni Cael, 18. The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC), however, identified the third casualty as Floro Sullivan, 32.

The three died of suffocation after floodwaters brought by Typhoon Mina caused the retaining wall of the Irisan Dumpsite to collapse, causing the garbage slide. “Hindi niya kinaya ‘yung lakas ng tubig at wala talagang outlet ‘yung tubig sa retaining wall. Nag-give way ang retaining wall na siyang dumali sa casualties natin dito," Baguio City Mayor Mauricio Domogan said in the television report. He also blamed the flooding in the city, known to be the country’s summer capital, on improper waste disposal. “Nalinisan namin noon ito so nawala ang flooding. Unfortunately, napabayaan na naman. ‘Yung pagdispose ng basura sa nearby areas, hindi talaga maganda," he said.
The three fatalities were among the seven people killed due to floods and landslides caused by Typhoon Mina. As of posting time, the weather disturbance – the 13th to hit the country this year — was on its way toward Taiwan but was still causing rains in northern Luzon. - Andreo C. Calonzo/KBK/HS, GMA News