Six people were confirmed dead and about 150 were missing after monsoon rains triggered a landslide at a Sri Lankan tea estate, in what may be the nation’s worst natural disaster since the 2004 tsunami that killed more than 30,000.
About 150 homes belonging to tea-estate workers were submerged yesterday morning, Pradeep Kodippili, deputy director at the island’s Disaster Management Center, said by phone. The tragedy occurred in the central Badulla district, about 220 kilometers (137 miles) from the capital Colombo.
Search operations by about 500 army and air force personnel were scheduled to resume at daybreak today. Rain and mud almost 5 meters deep hampered search efforts yesterday, military spokesman Brigadier Jayanath Jayaweera said by phone.
Local television channels showed aerial views of the disaster, where a 5 kilometer stretch of ground had been engulfed by sliding mud, burying homes in its path. Footage showed survivors wailing and shaking their fists at the sky. Twisted corrugated metal roofing sheets lay among the debris.
One woman interviewed by the MTV News 1st network spoke of rescuers yanking her out after being trapped in her house, only to find that her mother and aunt were unaccounted for.
Kodippili said the number of missing declined from an initial estimate of 300 because many children who had left for school before the disaster subsequently were accounted for.
Foreigners weren’t among the missing, said Sarath Kumara, an assistant director at the DMC.
The retreating monsoon brings rain to parts of Sri Lanka between October and December. A landslide warning had been in operation since late Oct. 28 in Badulla and the adjoining hill town of Nuwara Eliya, which is frequented by tourists.
The warning continues and more than 150 evacuees are being housed in two schools in the area, Kodippili said.
The government is providing food, blankets and shelter overnight also for those who have left their homes in the area fearing further landslides, Minister of Disaster Management Mahinda Amaraweera said by telephone.
“There is a chance the feared death toll could reduce to even 50, as more survivors are accounted for,” Amaraweera said.
The tea industry contributes about 2 percent to Sri Lanka’s gross domestic product and most of it is grown in the central highlands.
To contact the reporter on this story: Anusha Ondaatjie in Colombo at anushao@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Daniel Ten Kate at dtenkate@bloomberg.net Dick Schumacher
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