Emergency responders say that up to 8,000 people might need to be evacuated as the mass of boulders, earth and splintered trees that crushed the village of Yambali in the South Pacific island nation's mountainous interior on Friday becomes increasingly unstable

But an evacuation center near Yambali in Enga province only had room for about 50 families, said Justine McMahon, country director for the humanitarian agency CARE International

"For the number of people that they anticipate having to help, they actually need more land and I understand the authorities are trying to identify places now," McMahon said

Enga provincial disaster committee chairperson and provincial administrator Sandis Tsaka told The Associated Press he would not know how many villagers had been evacuated until late Wednesday

The unstable ground was also impacting the humanitarian response, said Kate Forbes, president of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

"Right now, the issue is, I understand, ... safety and access," Forbes told reporters in Manila in the Philippines

"We have to be sure that the land is somewhat stabilized before we can send our workers in to a great deal of extent," she added

The United Nations estimated 670 villagers died in the disaster that immediately displaced 1,650 survivors. Papua New Guinea's government has told the United Nations it thinks more than 2,000 people were buried. Six bodies had been retrieved from the rubble by Tuesday

Papua New Guinea's military earth-moving equipment had been expected to arrive at the scene on Tuesday after traveling from the city of Lae, 400 kilometers (250 miles) to the east. But that plan changed when a bridge between the Enga provincial capital Wabag and the nearest airstrip at Mount Hagen collapsed late Monday for reasons that have yet to be explained