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Carole Mikita Reporting Rescuers in the Philippines today shifted their digging efforts away from an area where they say they heard sounds, that after a huge mudslide buried a village last Friday.
Search efforts had focused on finding a school where some 300 people, mostly children, are believed to be trapped. But ground-penetrating radar, which can locate structures 50 feet underground, found nothing.
Searchers now believe there may be 100 feet of mud covering the area. The death toll has now risen to 107, with 1,000 people still missing.
Garry Flake directs emergency response efforts for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He told KSL today that he is working right now with the Red Cross.
Garry Flake, LDS Church Dir. Humanitarian Emergency Response: "Initial assistance, of course, has been the life-saving needs of food and shelter, reaching out to members of the church that have been affected in that area, and many others in that devastated community."
Flake was one of the first on the ground with a plane full of relief supplies, following last year's devastating tsunami. He says, after assessing this latest mudslide disaster, the LDS Church will likely send more money to purchase supplies already in the Philippines to get them on site faster.
Today, he joined Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin in a special Founder's Day address at the University of Utah. Elder Wirthlin told the students we live in a time of great upheaval, but also a time of great compassion. He said service should be a life-long commitment and that the LDS church partners with other faiths and organizations around the world.
Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin, Chairman, LDS Church Humanitarian Committee: "The church has had the great honor to work with many of those agencies. I have seen firsthand that good they accomplish. I commend their efforts and feel honored to stand beside them as friends and companions in this great work."
The Lowell Bennion Service Center sponsored today's event on campus. Through the center, many students volunteer their time to service projects throughout the community and in other countries.
