Special Cabinet meeting to discuss landslide tragedy

Friday, 31 October 2014 01:19 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Government to care for surviving children

A special Cabinet meeting will be chaired by President Mahinda Rajapaksa to discuss the Mihiriyabedda landslide that killed scores of people and destroyed more than 100 houses, with a large number of persons still missing. This was announced in Parliament by Chief Whip, Minister Dinesh Gunawardena. Describing this as the worst natural disaster in recent times, he said President Rajapaksa has instructed officials to take full responsibility for orphaned children. He visited the site of landslide yesterday and will issue a statement on future action soon. Minister Gunawardane said that as decided by the President, the Government will take responsibility for the schooling and other needs of the children who lost their parents in the landslide. Despite inclement weather conditions, the rescue and relief operations are continuing, he said. Of the landslide affected people, 522 have been sheltered at the Koslanda Tamil School and another 317 at the Poonagala Tamil School. They are being provided with food and essential facilities. The Disaster Management Center, District Secretariat, National Building Research Organization, the Police and Army have been deployed for relief and rescue work. Special health units have been set up and the Minister of Health has sent additional medical teams from Colombo to assist. Minister Gunawardane said the Government would provide food, clothing and other essential items to the affected people. He expressed confidence that Non Governmental Organisations, the private sector, voluntary organisations and the public would also provide assistance to the displaced persons. The Government will arrange the funerals for the victims of the landslide tragedy. Miriyabedda was identified as a landslide prone area in 2005 and it was recommended that 75 families should vacate that area. It was confirmed once again in 2011 and 35 families were given alternative land to build houses. Some who took such land continued to occupy houses in Miriyabedda and became victims of yesterday’s landslide. President visits landslide affected area

President Mahinda Rajapaksa visited landslide affected Miriyabedda area in Haldummulla yesterday. He visited the landslide affected area with Minister of Disaster Management, Mahinda Amaraweera and discussed rescue and relief operations. President Rajapaksa expressed his sympathies to the landslide victims and bereaved families in Haldummulla of Badulla District. Offering his ‘deep condolences’ for the victims of the massive landslide in the Miriyabedda village in Haldummulla, the President said he has instructed officials to provide immediate relief to those affected by the landslide. He ordered the Disaster Management Minister Mahinda Amaraweera, Chief Minister of the Uva Province Sashendra Rajapaksa and the Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa to take immediate and optimum necessary action to search and rescue the people and immediately provide all facilities required by the victims. The Disaster Management Center (DMC) confirmed that the number of confirmed deaths due to the landslide stood at 10. More than 150 persons still remained missing, according to the DMC’s situation report. A total of 150 houses had been fully damaged due to the landslide. Persons belonging to 57 families who were displaced due to the landslide are currently being housed in two camps, the DMC further said. Estimated death toll revised downwards Reuters: Hopes of finding survivors under the mud and rubble of a landslide in south-central Sri Lanka had run out by first light yesterday (30), though a Government Minister cut the estimated death toll to more than 100 from 300 the previous night. Disaster Management Minister Mahinda Amaraweera told Reuters it would be unlikely there would be any survivors, after visiting the disaster site in the tea-plantation village of Haldummulla, 190 km (120 miles) from the capital, Colombo. The Disaster Management Centre revised down its estimate for the number of people missing in Wednesday’s (29) disaster to 192 from 300, adding it was difficult to be sure of the number because population data was lost in the landslip. The centre said 150 houses were buried in the landslide, which stretched three km and engulfed the village after days of heavy monsoon rains. Children who left for school before the earthfall returned to find their clay and cement houses had been buried. Nearly 500 people, most of them children, spent the night at a nearby school after warnings of further landslides. At the disaster site, hundreds of soldiers and Government officials resumed search and clearing operations, using three earth-moving machines that rumbled amid broken trees, blocks of concrete, tin roofing and muddied clothes.