Yahoo – AFP,
Ishara Kodikara, 30 Oct 2014
 |
A road
damaged after a landslide caused by heavy monsoon rains in Koslanda
village in
central Sri Lanka on October 30, 2014 (AFP Photo/Ishara S. Kodikara)
|
Koslanda
(Sri Lanka) (AFP) - Heavy rains disrupted a massive search Thursday for scores
of people feared buried in a landslide on a Sri Lankan tea estate, further
dimming prospects of finding anyone alive.
An
estimated 100 people are still listed as missing, according to the national
Disaster Management Centre (DMC), a day after dozens of tin-roofed homes were
buried under tonnes of mud, with only a handful of bodies recovered so far.
Hundreds of
troops suspended their work with rains threatening more mudslides at the
plantation in central Sri Lanka.
 |
A
government-run relief camp at Poonagalla
on October 30, 2014 after a deadly
landslide
on a Sri Lankan tea estate that buried
scores of tin-roofed homes
under tonnes
of mud (AFP Photo/Ishara S. Kodikara)
|
"We
hope to start work tomorrow morning if the weather improves."
Perera said
they failed to find any survivors or bodies from the disaster site on Thursday.
He did not hold out much hope of finding survivors as the site was covered in
tonnes of mud.
"There
were no concrete structures which could have acted as air traps for victims to
survive," he added.
Shop keeper
Vevaratnam Marathamuttu said he ran when tonnes of earth came crashing down the
hill on Wednesday morning, fearing there had been an explosion.
"I
thought it was some sort of a bomb blast and fled from my shop,"
Marathamuttu said. "I saved my life because I ran away."
Truck
driver Sinniah Yogarajan, 48, said there was "no point in my living"
after five members of his family along with his friends were buried in the
disaster.
"The
entire neighbourhood has vanished. Now there is a river of mud where our houses
once stood," Yogarajan told AFP at a nearby school where survivors were
sheltering.
"The
soldiers are trying their best but every time they scoop out some of the mud
the hole then just gets filled up again with more mud."
There had
been fears of an even higher toll when officials initially said that up to 300
people were unaccounted for.
But the
government's disaster management minister said most of those who were
classified as missing were later found at work, with the DMC saying at least
227 people survived because they were out of their homes when the tragedy
struck.
Some 75
children were already at their school nearby when their homes were buried,
officials said, adding that they were checking on reports that at least two
children had lost both parents.
Fears of
more landslides
President
Mahinda Rajapakse visited the disaster area in Koslanda on Thursday, speaking
with survivors sheltering at two schools. He later inspected the Meeriyabedda
tea plantation, which bore the full brunt of the mudslide.
During the
day, soldiers were seen clearing debris from the mud, as curious onlookers as
well as survivors whose relatives were missing gathered at the site despite
appeals to stay away.
 |
Sri Lankan
residents watch search and rescue operations at the site of a landslide
caused
by heavy monsoon rains in Koslanda village in central Sri Lanka on
October 30,
2014 (AFP Photo/Ishara S. Kodikara)
|
Labourer
Arumugam Thyagarajah, 28, said his six-year-old daughter was washed away in the
mudslide as she walked with her older brother to school.
At least
1,200 people from nearby tea plantations have also been evacuated from their
homes amid fears that ongoing rains could lead to more mudslides, officials
said adding that more people were expected at relief centres.
Sri Lanka's
picturesque hill region is famed for producing Ceylon tea, and has become a
major tourist attraction with visitors able to stay on the plantations.
The number
of homes destroyed was revised down to 63 on Thursday from 150 given earlier by
the DMC.
"We
had difficulty communicating with our officers and sometimes rumours were
reported to us as facts," the Colombo-based DMC spokesman Sarath Kumara
told AFP.
An office
where village records were maintained was also destroyed in the disaster,
causing problems for the authorities in compiling reliable casualty figures.
Sri Lanka,
a tropical island at the foot of India, is prone to weather-related disasters
-- especially during the monsoon season when the rains are often welcomed by
farmers.
If the
death toll does reach three figures, the disaster would be the country's worst
since the December 2004 tsunami when 31,000 people died.
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