Highlands Highway - Mountain Broke
The Highlands Highway is the only pipeline for all supplies that come into the Western Highlands from the coastal areas of Lae and Madang. Last Monday the mountain above the Highlands Highway in the Simbu area broke. The mountains in the area are made of limestone. There were two extremely large pieces of limestone that sheared off the side of the mountain dropping and sinking into the ground. 
This drop of limestone hitting the ground caused the entire side of the mountain overburden (dirt, bushes, trees) to slide down the mountain taking everything with it - road, houses, villages, churches, graves, trees, poles, etc. As the ground slid, people were able to ride the top of the overburden as it moved down the mountain. The report is that no people were killed.
Mike and Will left the station on Wednesday to check on the mountain broke. The Simbu area is east of the station about 40 miles past Kundiawa but before Goroka. Mike and Will walked the entire slide width getting pictures of what damage was done. It took them 20 minutes to walk across the slid area. Mike is standing where the road should be when taking the pictures. As you look at the pictures you can see the white area on the mountain where the limestone broke of off. Trees, houses, and graves are laying everywhere. Mike said that it is the biggest slide that he has every seen and it is at least a mile wide. It will be days, probably months before the road will to opened.
As they crossed the slide area, people were carrying all kinds of items. The big white bags are coffee beans. This is the season for the coffee bean harvest. The coffee plantations are losing money because of the mountain broke and road closure. The trucks were backing up to the one side and people were carrying the bags to the other side to load in a waiting truck that would continue to the coast. Each person is being paid to carry items.
The people of Papua New Guinea travel in PMV (People Mover Vehicles - 15 passenger vans). The PMV unloads their passengers on one side of the slide and the people walk across to the other side of the slide area. When they arrive to the other side then they load up into another PMV and go to their destination. Some people are wanting to be paid compensation for passing through and asking for Kena.
Police and Defense Force troops are guarding the area 24/7 and trying to prevent violence from happening in the area.