Now nothing is left… People who reached the village after the landslide in Wayanad expressed their pain

Wayanad. On Sunday, 13 days after three villages were destroyed in the landslide incidents in Wayanad’s Meppadi area on July 30, many survivors reached the disaster-hit site for the first time with the search team. Seeing their houses destroyed due to the landslide, people’s pain once again spilled over and they could not stop their tears from flowing.

Massive searches resumed for the missing in landslide-hit Wayanad after a day’s break on Sunday morning. Gracy and her husband Thankachan, who were rescued by firefighters on July 30, arrived at their partially destroyed house and found it covered in mud.

Gracie said, “I still shudder remembering that night.” She said the whole house was shaking and water and mud entered the house and they ran to the second floor. Gracie said, “There was debris and mud all around so we couldn’t get out of the house.”

Thankachan said that soon after the landslide struck again, around 5 am, fire brigade personnel arrived and rescued them. He said, “We have come here for the first time after the landslide incident. Earlier there were many houses here, but now nothing is left.” Except his house, all the houses around that area have been washed away.

Mahin, who lives in Panchiri Mattom, told reporters that he went to the area where his house was but he saw nothing except big stones and tree trunks. Mahin said, “Nothing is left there. Everything has either been washed away or buried. Only big stones and tree trunks can be seen there.”

The search operation was halted for some time on Friday afternoon as the area was handed over to the Special Protection Force (SPG) in view of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the disaster-hit Mundakkai and Choorlamala areas on Saturday. Apart from police and fire department personnel, volunteers from various service and youth organisations, landslide survivors and relatives of the deceased also joined the search operation.

However, the search operation was called off after heavy rains hit Mundakkai and Choorlamala settlements in Wayanad. According to the state government, 229 people died in the landslide and more than 130 people are still missing.

Tags: Kerala, Narendra Modi, Pinarayi Vijayan