India looks for the missing people after devastating landslides in Kerala.
People are trapped and many are dead in the southern Indian state of Kerala, as landslides caused by monsoon rains bury homes and roads. The death toll is likely to increase since the rescue operation is underway in very difficult conditions with the aim of saving the remaining people.
The landslides occurred in the northeastern Wayanad district at the early hours of Tuesday leaving many devastated. Some of the victims choked to death, while as per latest estimates, hundreds of people are listed still missing. Some of the difficulties that are witnessed by rescuers include; there is perpetual rainfall, at times, there is electricity black out and the roads are immovable due to fallen trees.
Kerala’s Minister for Forest and Wildlife, A. K. Saseendran, stressed more on efforts being made for the rescue of people. They are wading through water and rubble to take away the dead and the living to higher grounds. Some of the excessive rains were captured by the National Disaster Response Force in which rescue workers were observed navigating in the flood water on rubber boats.
Some were airlifted by helicopters, but poor weather conditions are slowing the process. At least 1000 people have apparently been saved so far the Indian Army, southern command has claimed.
Janaki, a local resident told me how her family had a very close shave when loud sound coming from the river and water rushing through the room woke them up. They ran to the neighboring house and again the house was covered by the landslide. Janaki’s husband, Vasu, said that they were pulled out by the rescue workers who reached the site early in the morning.
Moopens Medical College Hospital’s Dr. Manoj Narayanan said he received approximately 100 patients, with some of them in critical conditions, such as fractures and mud-filled lungs. Some patients could hardly be distinguished because their bodies were almost mutilated.
Meteorological forecasts reveal that Kerala gets up to 250 mm (10 inches) of rainfall in 24 hours, thus raising the probability of floods and landslides. Such a weather event is not rare during the monsoon season but it is getting more severe and frequent because of climate change.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi condemned the attack and offered the families of the victims $3,000 each. This disaster piles to the ongoing suffering in South Asia where continuous rain and floods have claimed many lives and left many people homeless.
Continued attempts are being made to get to some of the hard-to-reach villages and evacuate more people from the area as the scale of the tragedy is still being realized.
