by Maheesha Mudugauwa
Mudslides set off by torrential rains rushed down rain-soaked hills in two districts, sweeping away scores of houses and killing at least 40 people in three villages during the past two days, Disaster Management Centre (DMC) said yesterday. More than 100 others are missing.
Sixteen people were killed by a landslide at Kalupahanawatte in Bulathkohupitiya and the bodies of 16 people killed by a landslide in Elangapitiya village in Aranayake in the Kegalle District have been recovered. Another landslide occurred at Kadugannawa, killing six people on Monday.
About 100 houses were swept away by the landslide in Aranayake late Tuesday. Hundreds of rescuers, including soldiers, police and residents, dug through the debris yesterday in search of missing people, Power and Renewable Energy Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya said.
Minister Siyambalapitiya who had been to Aranayake shortly after the disaster, told The Island that over 1,000 residents had been evacuated to temporary shelters.
“A residential area has been swept away by the landslide and in Bulathkohupitiya estate houses have been destroyed,” he said.
Minister Siyambalapitiya, who represents the Kegalle District said, “The main task now is to help people survive.
We are providing them with food, shelter and safe drinking water because all water sources are contaminated. The damage is not yet known, but it is obvious that we are witnessing a critical humanitarian situation here.”
“It’s difficult to give exact figures but I’ve asked the Kegalle District Secretariat to get the total number of residents in the area affected by the landslide,” the Minister said.
“We had to close two roads leading to the disaster hit area in Aranayake as large number of people are converging there disrupting recovery efforts. The army and Police are continuously engaged in rescue operations. But, it was difficult to reach the area by helicopters.”
Minister Siyambalapitiya had submitted a report on affected people in Kegalle district to President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe yesterday.
President Sirisena visited the landslide affected Samasara Hill area in Aranayake in Kegalle and met the displaced people in Dikpitiya Rajagiriya School and Hathgampala Vidyalaya.
Sixteen bodies were pulled out from the mud and the wreckage of crumpled houses and rescuers were struggling to search for people still missing. Officer-In-Charge of Aranayake Police Station Gunathilake said that the injured villagers were being hospitalised.
He said the displaced people had been sheltered in four locations including temples and schools.
Meanwhile, over 350,000 people were affected by the floods, landslides and heavy rain in 21 districts and more than 196,254 people were evacuated to 332 safe locations as the heavy rains continued, according to the DMC.
In addition to deaths reported from landslides in Aranayake, Bulathkohupitiya and Kadugannawa, another 19 have been killed in Colombo, Wattala, Dehiovita, Udunuwara, Baddegama, Thabuththegama, Puttalam, Kalpitiya, Madampe, Pannala, Wariyapola, Ibbagamuwa and Rideegama, according to DMC.
Over 170,000 people in the Colombo District were affected by heavy rains and floods as of yesterday evening and over 148,000 of them were evacuated to safe locations. Colombo, Gampaha and Kegalle were among the worst affected Districts.
According to the statistics of the DMC, around 211 houses have been destroyed and another 2436 damaged.
Due to the prevailing weather condition, the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) yesterday announced that the Wilpattu National Park would be closed for a week till May 25 as the roads in and outside of the park were flooded.
The park remained closed for tourists who had already made reservations to stay in the tourist bungalows inside the park and would provide alternative dates after the park re-opened on May 25.
All other national parks would be kept open for tourists but all were advised to be cautions about the prevailing bad weather before visiting the parks, the department noted.
Meanwhile, Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Development Minister Mahinda Amaraweera has ordered the officials to provide a complete report on the damages caused to the fisheries community and one million rupees would be provided to the families of fishermen killed during the adverse weather conditions at sea.
The low pressure area in the Bay of Bengal had intensified to a depression and now located about 400km north of Kankasanturai and it was further moving away from the country, the Met Department said yesterday.
However, it predicted that the rainy weather that prevailed over northern part of the country would improve but there was a high possibility of a sudden increase of rain in the south-western part of the country and strong windy conditions over the rest of the country and in the sea areas would continue during next few days due to meeting of wind feeding to the system.
The landslide warning issued to 19 districts had been extended by the National Building Research Organisation (NBRO).
Courtesy:The Island