Rain, debris, leeches: India landslide survivors recall 'night of horrors'

MEPPADI, India - Whenever it rains very heavily in the hills of Wayanad in southern India, many people stay awake, recalling a 2019 landslide that killed about 20 people.

On July 29 as well, housewife M Fathima said she and her extended family in Mundakkai village stayed awake as incessant rain poured down during the day and into the night.

"When the first landslide hit around 1am, we were all awake," said Fathima, 52. "Everyone in the room was crying. It felt like death was imminent."

At least one other landslide followed.

The family of about 20 people moved out early on July 30 with other villagers who survived the two landslides, Fathima said. It was night, and houses were scattered, so they were unaware that scores had died in the area.

Nearly 100 of the villagers, including children and pregnant women, trekked for kilometres through the devastation of debris, wet soil, large rocks and uneven terrain downhill.

Rescuers reached them soon and shifted them to a relief camp in the town of Meppadi, but Fathima remains distressed.

"We don't know what is left of our houses once we go back," she said from the camp.

The landslides that hit Wayanad district in Kerala state, a popular tourist destination, killed more than 170 people and left hundreds homeless, with more than 8,000 people sheltered in the safety of camps.

Most victims died in their sleep, as torrents of mud, boulders, water and trees swept through tea and cardamom estates and plantation villages, burying people or washing them away.

The authorities and some experts have blamed the disaster on unexpected very heavy rain caused by the warming of the Arabian Sea. Rescue has been slowed by incessant rain, with the army racing to build a temporary bridge across a swollen river to reach Mundakkai, the most affected area in the hills.

"It was truly a night of horrors," said K. H. Abbas, 46, a labourer who fled his house after the first landslide with seven family members, including a four-month-old baby. "We spent the night by a small forest, with rain, leeches and what not."

Abbas said he found out that his house has not been damaged but is afraid to return.

"I don't feel confident enough to go back. It would be a nightmare to stay there again," he said. "Then again, we can't afford another house either."

Aliyar Kutty, 59, who runs a small business, was not as fortunate although he escaped with his life while two neighbours stayed back and are now dead.

"Everything was swept away by the rains," Kutty said. "We have to rebuild everything from scratch. We had only taken some important documents of my daughter and some spare clothes. Everything else has been lost."

Muzammil Haque, a migrant worker from the distant north-eastern state of Assam who is employed at a local tea estate, faces additional problems as he does not know the local language, Malayalam.

"It has been very distressing… I have never seen anything like this before," he said. "Big rocks were breaking, trees uprooted, and homes, shops, everything lay destroyed. There were many dead bodies all around."

"We do not know where to go or what to do, nor do we understand the local language," he said. "Food and money are a problem because we are daily-wage workers."

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