200 families missing as Sri Lankan landslides bury three villages

[muriel_volestrangler]

Source: The Guardian

Rescuers are looking for more than 200 families who are missing following massive landslides in a remote area on the slopes of Sri Lanka’s Central Hills.

The Sri Lankan Red Cross said the landslides, which struck on Tuesday after three days of heavy rain, buried three villages – Siripura, Pallebage and Elagipitya – in Kegalle district.

Red Cross officials said they suspected that at least 220 families were missing, going by government population records. Government officials did not confirm the figure.

Seventeen bodies had already been recovered from piles of mud, a military spokesman said, taking to 36 the confirmed, countrywide death toll attributed to the severe weather and flooding.


Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/18/sri-lanka-hundreds-of-families-missing-after-landslide-buries-three-villages

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. Hopes fading for Sri Lanka's landslide survivors

Heavy rains are hampering rescue efforts and hopes are fading for the possibility of finding survivors among the 130 missing in the Sri Lankan region which was hit by landslides that have left 58 people dead.
...
Tuesday's landslides wiped out at least three villages in the central hills of Aranayaka following torrential rains that have affected up to 350,000 people, according to the country's Disaster Management Centre.

"I don't think there will be any survivors," Major-General Sudantha Ranasinghe, the officer in charge of the rescue operation, told Reuters news agency.

"There are places where the mud level is up to 30 feet. We will do our best. We will keep going until we can recover the maximum."

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/05/hopes-fading-sri-lanka-landslide-survivors-160519162210596.html

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11641839

[2cannan]

2. How very sad. I hope they can still find some alive. nt