Guinsaugon, Philippines ? Hoping for a miracle, rescue workers in the Philippines continued searching for survivors today in an elementary school swamped by a landslide that buried this town and killed some 1,800 people.

No survivors have been found since Friday, however, and reports that students and teachers sent cell phone text messages from inside went unconfirmed, leaving the search effort dispirited and empty-handed.

Teams today were also digging around the site of the village hall, where about 300 people had been attending a women’s conference when the slide buried Guinsaugon.

Fearing more landslides, 11 villages were evacuated as U.S. military ships steamed to the scene. A team of up to 30 U.S. Marines based in Okinawa, Japan, was already at the site.

Police dogs arrived in the sunshine today after days of constant rain that raised fears of more landslides and hampered efforts to rescue any survivors. Still, low clouds and thin mist suggested that rain could return.

Rescue workers had been warned to tread carefully or risk becoming casualties themselves as the uneasy mud settled.

A woman prays during Mass today at Our Lady of Remedies Church in Manila, Philippines, where prayers were offered for the victims of the Leyte landslide in the southern Philippines. On Friday a massive landslide buried the town of Guinsaugon and rescuers fear nearly the entire population of about 1,800 has perished.

The landslide on Friday, which followed two weeks of heavy rains, was believed to have killed nearly every man, woman and child in the farming village of Guinsaugon, which was covered with mud up to 30 feet deep.

The situation was so delicate that a no-fly zone was established over the area out of concern that blasts of air from the helicopters’ rotors could send the mud oozing again in Guinsaugon, about 400 miles southeast of the capital, Manila.

Medical supplies and excavation equipment were reaching the area on Leyte island, and U.S. military ships were expected later today with 1,000 Marines. But with no survivors found Saturday, it appeared the operation would be recovery instead of relief.

Only 57 people were plucked from the mud Friday from Guinsaugon’s population of 1,857. At least 58 bodies were recovered – including two today.

Officials had suspended the search operation after dark Saturday, with the footing too dangerous and no floodlights available to illuminate the massive mud field, which was surrounded by a shallow stream.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo mentioned reports about cell phone messages sent by survivors in the swamped school during a televised staff meeting on the disaster. The reports gave impetus to the military to dispatch 60 soldiers to the scene.

But as day turned to night, no signs of life were found, and officials admitted that they had been unable to confirm the existence of any genuine text messages from survivors.

Many residents of the landslide area were evacuated last week due to the threat of landslides or flooding following the heavy rains, but had started returning home when the rains let up and days turned sunny.