Landslide of Cherry Hills

About more than 10 years ago, there was this unexpected landslide in the nearby town of Antipolo (now a city). It is a growing town with lots of residential subdivisions which used to be farm and orchard in the mountain. One village is Cherry Hills with a housing project that has more than 50 houses already built and sold. Unknown to the buyers, the subdivision itself is not sound because it is susceptible to landslides.

And it happened. Due to excessive rains, a landslide caused the houses of Cherry Hills subdivision to collapse as if they were lego structures. Countless of the residents were buried alive and it took days before all the bodies of the victims were recovered. It was an accident waiting to happen because the said subdivision was built on the steep slope of a mountain.

One survivor told of the story that he woke up to the deafening sound that he thought were logs falling from the mountains. When he felt a tremor, he stood by the pillar of the house. And when the house moved, he tried to hang on and kept holding until the movement stopped. He didn't know that the house was already covered by soil. He was able to get out in the morning when the sun was already up. And he said that he had presence of mind because he kept on praying all the time.