Mud is all that meets the eye

Four days after the massive earth-slip, the biggest in history, the Aranayake landslide has left over 50 dead and 143 still missing, writes Isuri Yasasmin Kaviratne, reporting from Aranayake.

The Sunday Observer accompanied the military officers engaged in rescue and salvage mission in Elangipitiya, a sea of mud layers that buried over 150 villagers. Analysing the ground situation, officer in charge of the operations in the area said a block of rocks and soil on the mountain top had fallen on the villages just below it, and the entire area had slid down the slope, to Elangipitiya affecting over 70 acres.

There are around 600 army and police STF engaged in the search missions in Aranayake. However, the officer at the site said the rescue missions have proven to be extremely difficult because people are buried under at least 7-10 feet of soil.

Some say the cultivations like, tea, pepper, cloves have loosened the soil, and the trees do not have deep roots.Some claim that the sections of the mountain was dozed for construction which has led to landslide, while another theory is the small rock-blasters people use to level the ground with when they build houses. The military confirmed that even the blast created by 500 grams of explosive could create shock waves through the rock that can have substantial impacts later.

The military is using manual labour to dig the dead or other equipment and vehicles buried in the mud as no other machinery can be used in the muddy marshy lands. Binoculars are used to locate potential areas to excavate.

Using long sticks to measure how deep the mud goes, the troupes walked into the what used to be Elangipitiya village, where only the roofs and parts of the top floor is visible from the two story houses.The continuous rain in the area is slowing the operations.

The loss and pain

He is attending funerals, wiping away the tears with his saffron robe. KetahapathaneAnomadassiThera was the monk at Siri Pura Temple in Samasara Village who lost 136 of the ‘daayaka’ at his temple, leaving only 11 families behind to rebuild the village.

“The ground was cracked since morning, so, we called the Development Officer of the area to inspect it,” he said with regret on the death of the Development Officer ErangaWikumsiri and his brother who came to the village to inspect the cracks. Anomadassithera was returning from the pirivena when the land slid with a loud noise. Helpless, he watched a massive rock flying towards him, and barely escaped the collision. Acres of land on either sides of the temple are affected. “The temple is intact, but inaccessible,” he said.

The area that was cracked most, Etambagala, was not hit by the landslides, but remains dangerous, the thera said.

Head Monk at the ViyanEliya Temple, DepathgamaVijithseehaThera said people came rushing ot the temple soon after the huge noise which he thought was a plane crashing into a mountain nearby, he said.

The Gramasewakas, Social Service Officials of the Division, members of Sri Lanka Red Cross, and many other officers from the Divisional Secretariat have set up desks at the Temple to help the affected.

Most of the villagers say they thought a plane had exploded or a crashed into a nearby mountain.

Death mourns

Anula Rajakaruna another resident said, she focused on taking care of her relatives in the camp, without thinking of the fact that nine of her family members had died. Many tried to grasp the ugly reality that lied in front of them. Walking around the camp, the stories one heard of were all death mourns. One house which had a party going with 20 relatives lost everyone to the landslide.

R. P. Piyawathi is devastated that her son and grandson were lost in the mounds of earth that fell on their village. He was returning home with his boy when the disaster occurred. “My daughter in law and the two kids who survived are in hospital.”

The camp in Kalugala got less attention from relief workers, due to the difficulties in reaching the camp. The five kilometer ride from the main road to the camp was narrow and slippery due to rain, and difficult to maneuver vehicles..

The Development Officer of Kalugala staying at the camp in the Kalugala Primary School, A. U. S. Ethugala said that medicine and other necessities for women and children are yet to arrive in the camp. “Even the Public Health Officers said they wouldn’t be able to visit again because the roads are bad.,” and said it was unfair to ask them to move from their village, at a moment of crisis.

The camp at Viyan Eliya Temple is sending dry rations for the 37 families stranded at Kalugala.

The dilapidated road, in the villages of Kalugala has not been reconstructed by any government since the colonial period, according to the villagers, and is a risk path during the rainy season, fallen amidst the slopes of a rubber estate parts of which is falling down to the road, further blocking it, the villagers said.

Military was deployed to four locations in Kegalle District for rescue turned salvage missions, and evacuating people from the danger zones. The Commander in charge of the Operation Major General Sudantha Ranasinghe said the affected mountain is still cracked and with the continuous rain, it continues to be a hazardous zone.

Carrying out rescue and salvage missions in the slope of the affected mountain is a risky business. Ranasinghe explained that after concluding that there aren’t any more people on the mountain, the search operations were limited to Elangipitiya, the village by the slope. “There are layers of dirt due to continuous landslides, amounting to around 10-15 feet of mud. Added to that are the wells and compost pits in the village that cannot be seen now, but are deathtraps,” he said the military troupes have to be extremely cautious when looking for bodies in this marshy land.

Speaking of the operations he said the military troupes had arrived with medical teams, sniffer dogs, Police Special Task Force and commandos who have experience and training in mountain rappelling on 17th night. The landslides continued in several phases till around midnight on the 17th.

The following morning, the Commandos climbed down the mountain and rescued six people, and recovered 14 dead bodies. The Help Desk set up by the Army collected information about the survivors and recorded 134 missing people.

Salvage mission

He said that the salvage mission could not be conducted in an orderly manner on the 19th due to rains.. The whole mountain was covered with smoke and with a thundering noise sections of the Siri Pura Mountain slithered down the slope around five times. The total missing was recorded as 144 that night.

In addition, Aranayake, Balangoda, Dehiovita and Bulathkohupitiya were also hit by landslides.

Major General Susantha said that more troupes had to be deployed to Bulathkohupitiya immediately after Aranayake, and then to Colombo, to the areas that were flooded due to the torrential rains.

It was reported that 16 were missing in Bulathkohupitiya and immediately after the disaster, bodies of five dead villagers were recovered and nine the day after.

With the cyclone warning issues for Colombo from May 23-25 Ranasinghe said that most of the troops in Kegalle will be positioned in Colombo, especially with the threat to Ambathale water treatment plant and Kelanitissa power station being flooded. But, he added that military teams will remain at Aranayake for at least two more weeks.