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President Mahinda Rajapaksa inquires after the welfare of the people displaced in Koslanda at the Sri Ganeesha Tamil College in Koslanda yesterday – Pic by Nishanka de Silva
Uditha Jayasinghe reporting from Haldumulla
The cacophony from the relief camp is deafening but amidst the noise S. Parameswari sits in a daze after four of her family members were buried alive in the massive landslide that instantly cemented its place as one of history’s worst natural disasters.
But her stoic expression cracks as she describes how the trees on the mountain top started to move suddenly in the early hours of Tuesday.
“I screamed to my family, I yelled for them to get out. I ran inside and grabbed my grandchild. Just as we stepped outside earth, trees and large boulders came crashing towards us. The child was holding my hand. But I couldn’t hold on and she was dragged down with the mud along with my house and everyone who was inside,” she gasps as frantic sobs break out.
Parameswari lost four of her 11 family members. She has nothing left other than the light green sari she was clad in and some bedding donated to her by a relief organisation. She sits on a plastic mat spread on the concrete floor of the Ganesha Tamil Maha Vidyalam, which is a public school near her home.
The school hall is now her only shelter.
Squatting on the floor a few meters away is R. Saroja. She works in a factory in the town of Homagama in the outskirts of capital Colombo. Her sick husband, daughter and son-in-law were lost in the landslide.
“I tried to call home to see how they are but the phones wouldn’t connect and then I heard about it,” she sobbed to the Daily FT, her voice getting garbled in her grief.
More than 800 people have been left bereft of family and everything they possessed in this area. This includes about 75 children who have been grouped into two relief camps after a massive landslide crashed into an estimated 120 plantation homes, burying around 200 people.
Basically the entire village of Meeriabedda Estate in the central hillside town of Haldumulla has been largely wiped out. In acknowledgement of the tragedy, white flags are popping up on roadsides, in front of homes and shops, vehicles and alongside the broken road leading up to the landslide.
Most of the children had left to school since the day started much like any other. Many heard of the landslide, which happened at around 7:30 in the morning, much later in the day. In an instant their families were wiped out and they returned to chaos.
Fearing for their lives, hundreds of people living in nearby areas are also flocking to camps after the Government Disaster Management Centre (DMC) issued a landslide warning covering five districts. They require shelter, food, clothes and other basic essentials but also demand homes in safer areas, which could push officials into a massive relocation program that would take years.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who paid a hurried visit to the area on Thursday, met with Army personnel and Government officials leading relief operations. He also visited relief camps where relatives of people who lived in the Meeriabedda Estate are now housed after the landslide swept away their parents.
However, he did not tour the actual landslide area where teams of soldiers are hacking away at thousands of cubic feet of mud in a massive search for bodies, preferring to view the area from his helicopter.
“The President will discuss this situation at the Cabinet meeting with the aim of providing relief measures,” said the President’s Office, following the observation tour. His son MP Namal Rajapaksa and UNP frontliner Harin Fernando also visited the site.
India, US and the United Nations have promised aid to survivors. Local companies and individuals have also pledged assistance following one of the worst disasters in the country’s history.
The US Embassy in Colombo in a statement said that the US extends its deepest condolences to the Government of Sri Lanka and the families affected by the recent landslide.
“We stand ready to assist the Government and victims as they mourn the loss of loved ones, treat the injured, and address the extensive losses and damage caused by this natural disaster. We commend the Government of Sri Lanka and its Armed Forces for their rapid response and valiant search and rescue efforts,” the Embassy said.
Tracking the number of missing has proved difficult given the records kept by the plantation company where most of these villagers were employed was also swept away by the landslide.
Over 700 Army personnel have been deployed but their work has been hampered by fears of triggering another landslide and unrelenting torrential rain. The mud-filled area is also hard to reach with narrow, broken roads, making movement of machinery difficult.
Journalists attempting to cover the landslide were forced to walk several kilometres to reach the landslide location after security officials limited vehicle movement to only those involved in relief operations.
“We have deployed teams of 10 soldiers each to move carefully on the landslide area and try to locate bodies, but it is nearly impossible given the scale. We need heavy machinery and several more days to make significant headway,” an Army engineer told the Daily FT but declined to give his name as he is not authorised to talk to the media.
Far above the hillside soldiers moved to remove tin roofing sheets, hack away trees and carry off furniture strewn on mounds of earth, while seven backhoe machines slowly ate through rubble below them.
Despite 10 hours of solid digging, no new bodies were recovered on Thursday. Three bodies were dragged out on Wednesday. At this point no survivors are expected.
A security cordon had to be thrown around the area after hundreds of residents trudged to view the landslide. Relatives were also turned away with promises of prompt news if bodies were recovered.
“My mother was here. She was 60 and a pensioner,” sobbed A. Selwamani, who managed to get up to the area with her husband and child. She wept in disbelief and confessed she had given up hope of finding her mother after seeing the extent of the damage.
Relief operations are growing as several hundred families in five districts were warned to evacuate to safer areas as massive tracts of earth threatened to dislodge gather in nearby schools. Aid to these impromptu camps is also needed, appealed residents.
The blame game has already begun with villagers accusing provincial Government officials of not providing sufficient warning of potential landslides. The officials insist they have been attempting to move the inhabitants since 2005 and emphasised fresh warnings were released several days ago when rains first started lashing the area, but charge the residents refused to leave.
Sri Lanka’s central region of green rolling hills, bedecked in rubber and tea plantations, is famous for producing the island’s world-famous Ceylon Tea and regularly attracts thousands of local and foreign tourists.
However, its plantation workers are also some of the poorest, making a far lower income and facing challenging social-economic situations, unlike its other citizens. Workers live in lines of cramped quarters, often made up with one or two rooms, built on the plantation itself. They usually have limited access to healthcare and education, with many opting to find work in other areas of the country or work abroad.
One of the most telling criticisms was levelled by N. Yogeswari. Her six-year-old daughter was swept off by the landslide. Sadly she is not a resident of Meeriabedda but her children take the road through the village to reach their school. Her two older children aged 10 and eight survived.
“They (Government) cannot just tell one village, they have to tell the surrounding people as well. We didn’t know and we sent our children to school. Why didn’t they warn us? Why?” she cried. Her current home is the Koslanda Tamil College along with some of those from the Meeriabedda village.
No tourists were harmed in the landslide that swept away seven lines of plantation homes.
