Search continues for missing 40

AUTHORITIES in Madang have launched a search for at least 40 people unaccounted for in a boat mishap that occurred on Monday.
The search that started on Tuesday is still continuing, a provincial disaster official said last night. The official was preparing a report for the Madang provincial administration and was reluctant to give any details to the media.
“We do not have the confirmed figures yet of the number of people that got on the boat, or the number that are unaccounted since the boat capsized,” the official said.
Most of those missing are Teptep people from the mountain area of Rai Coast, who have no road access and rely on this transport to get into Madang with their produce.
Eighteen people have been rescued while two bodies were recovered. It is believed two of those unaccounted for are two highlanders who went into the area to buy betelnut.
A survivor The National spoke to said about 60 people boarded the mv Nara, which has a passenger capacity of 30 people. The assistant skipper of the vessel said knife-wielding men forced the boat to overload at the Saidor wharf before it crossed the Astrolabe Bay for Madang town.
Elep Gaulick told The National from his Modilon hospital bed on Tuesday night that the situation at the Saidor wharf was tense and company workers on the ground were under duress when they allowed more cargo and people on board.
He said with men producing knives and using threatening language, the over-powered ground staff members had no option but to load the bags of copra, betelnut and cocoa and people over the capacity of the ship.
According to his estimate, there were more than 60 people and 160 bags for a boat that has a capacity for 30 passengers and 120 bags.
Gaulick, who skippered the boat, said to appease the tense situation, ground staff allowed bags and passengers even into the captain’s cabin.
He said the boat was owned by a family who run two copra plantations in Rai Coast.
He said the boat was making its usual run, starting from Malalamai at the border of Madang and Morobe when the accident occurred.
Gaulick said he survived the ordeal in the open sea for more than 15 hours, floating with his niece, Evelyn Kanpo, before they were discovered by rescuers on a boat from the Ramu nickel project at 8am the next day.
He said when he heard a boat engine, he used his last strength to splash water into the air to attract attention while holding onto Kanpo, who was unconscious.
They were then taken to Biliau where medical officers from the Modilon GH and health centres in the area were waiting.
Gaulick said a few hours after the accident, his niece lost her strength and could not swim or stay afloat because of her larger body frame.
He had the option of letting her sink and die or save both of them by swimming and staying afloat.
He chose the latter and, with the help of a bag of brus (dried tobacco) which they used as buoy, they stayed afloat all night. 
Both were admitted to Modilon for dehydration with minor bruises.
Kanpo was separated from her four-year-old son but the child was saved by a boat crew who swam with the boy to safety at a beach. Also saved by the crew in the same manner was the small son of another crew.
Kanpo’s husband, Bougainvillean Felix Kanpo, was a very relieved man beside his wife at the hospital and was lost for words.