Death Toll Rises to 73, Scores Remain Missing in Weeklong Sri Lanka Storms

The Associated Press
Published: May 21,2016
The death toll from landslides and heavy flooding in Sri Lanka has risen to 73 as soldiers continue to look for scores of missing people since the onslaught of severe weather hit the country several days ago.

Maj. Gen. Sudantha Ranasinghe said one body and parts of another were found Saturday. Twenty-one people have been confirmed dead from landslides that took place in three villages and 123 others are missing.

According to Ranasinghe, another part of the same mountain crashed down Saturday, but there were no casualies because residents had been evacuated after the first landslides.

Sri Lanka's disaster management center has reported deaths across the country since Monday from lightning strikes, floods, falling trees and other, smaller landslides. About 243,000 people have been displaced and are in temporary shelters.

Thursday continuous rainfall in the villages of Siripura, Pallebage and Elagipitya forced a search to be halted for about an hour due to the continuing danger of additional slides. In addition to the loose ground, heavy fog and electrical outages have also made the search more difficult.
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Asked whether rescuers expected to find survivors, Maj. Gen. Ranasinghe pointed to an area in Elangapitiya village where 66 houses once stood.
"We don't have a trace of any house here. All gone with that landslide," he said. "So I have my doubts."

Sri Lankan military personnel take part in relief and rescue efforts following a landslide in the village of Bulathkohupitiya on May 18, 2016.
(STR/AFP/Getty Images)

In Elangapitiya alone, the village furthest down the hill, 14 bodies were recovered Wednesday.
Farmer Hewapelige Lal said he had identified the body of his nephew, but that 18 other family members were possibly buried under the mud. He and his wife had left their home to take fruit to a daughter who lived elsewhere, but at some point his wife turned back.
"That was the last time I saw her," Lal said, sobbing. When he heard of the landslide, he rushed home but found the area covered with thick, heavy mud. "All I could do was scream."
Villagers said torrents of muddy water, tree branches and debris came crashing down Tuesday around their homes in the three villages in Kegalle district, about 45 miles north of Colombo.
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At the Viyaneliya Temple, about 300 villagers shared a meal of brown bread and curried lentils. Local officials interviewed each one to learn about missing family members and possessions buried under the mud.
All nine of A.G. Alice's children were unaccounted for after the landslide hit their home in Siripura village.
"I don't know what happened to me" after the landslides swept down, the 70-year-old said.
The same rains that unleashed the mudslides also caused severe flooding in cities including Colombo, the capital, where tens of thousands of homes were at least partially inundated.