TADIAN, Mountain Province — A huge portion of a village here, which was heavily ravaged by the recent onslaught of typhoon “Pepeng,” may be wiped out from the map should another massive landslide occur in the area.

Fear of another landslide came up after the newly organized Kayan Disaster Coordinating Council (KDCC), a community initiated civic organization that provides assistance to residents affected by disaster, uncovered that a huge portion of Upper Kayan, where an earlier huge landslide happened, is in danger of collapsing because of evident cracks on the mountain which could cave in during another wave of strong rains.

On October 8, 2009, a huge landslide occurred in a split second and buried at least 18 houses in Kayan East that resulted in the death of 35 people and injury to four others.

Because of the tragic and traumatic experience and the closure of roads leading to the town to facilitate search, rescue, and retrieval operations, the whole community organized themselves, pooled their resources, and initiated the initial conduct of rescue operations in the spirit of unity and voluntarism.

Despite the harrowing experience of the people – the biggest tragedy that ever happened in the town’s history – the unique culture of Cordillerans to come to the rescue of those who are in dire need of assistance prevailed over their grief just to make sure that all those affected by the landslide were accounted.

Based on an initial survey conducted by experts from the town and volunteers, the cause of the landslide could be attributed to the series of cracks noted on the slope the mountain that forms a hyperbolic figure.
Just above these cracks are rice fields and vegetable gardens.