SEARCH and retrieval operations for 64 people buried in landslides in Guihulngan City and in La Libertad, Negros Oriental, temporarily stopped on Sunday due to continuous downpour brought about by a low-pressure area.

Also, at least 200 families living along the riverbank at Barangay Tinayonan, also in Guihulngan, were evacuated Saturday night due to a flash flood threat from a temporary dam created by another landslide, Senior Supt. Ed Carranza, Negros Oriental Provincial Police director said.

Benito Ramos, National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) executive director, said the combined operations by police and soldiers to recover the 64 people believed buried by the tons of debris in barangays Planas in Guihulngan and Solonggon in La Libertad were temporarily suspended due to rains pouring over the area.

Weather forecasters said the downpour was being spawned by a low-pressure area that affected the whole of Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao.

Ramos said that even without the weather problem, it may be too difficult for them to locate and recover the 64 missing people because of the mountains of debris that the landslides generated in the two barangays.

Because of this, he said local officials were considering declaring the sites of the two landslides as gravesites for the victims and just hold memorials for them there.

The head of NDRRMC said that based on their official list, the fatality count is still pegged at 41.

Ramos said many residents of Guihulngan and La Libertad have not returned to their homes yet as they are fearful of aftershocks and that their houses have sustained cracks and damage. He said the residents have chosen to remain inside tents and makeshift shelters their families have put up in open grounds or in front of their homes.

He added that even local government employees of Guihulngan and La Libertad were working inside improvised shelters they put up in front of the city and municipal hall buildings.

Carranza said police and soldiers evacuated the 200 families before midnight on Saturday from the banks of a river at Barangay Tinayonan due to fears that a flash flood might occur after a landslide in the barangay created a temporary dam.

He said officials were looking to blast the temporary dam on Sunday.

Carranza said the situation is slowly improving in Guihulngan and La Libertad as more relief centers have been opened in order to attend to the basic needs of the affected residents.

But he said the improvement should be hastened if the destroyed and damaged bridges leading to the areas would be replaced or repaired, or bailey bridges erected.