NILAMBUR: It has been a long wait for 40-year-old Padmini and her 20-year-old daughter-in-law Manisha of Kavalappara for their loved ones. Six members of their family, including four children, have gone missing in the landslide in the area since Thursday.
Padmini said her sister Santha Kumari, Santha Kumari’s son Sujith, a Plus-II student, her distant relative Susheela, Susheela’s father Aanakkaran, 65, and Susheela’s three children Karthik, a Class X student, Kamal, Class VIII student and Kishor, a Class IV student, are still under the debris of the landslide.
Padmini and Manisha have been staying at the relief camp at Malankara Catholic Church in Bhoothanam since last Friday. Two men in the family, Santha Kumari’s husband Sunil and Manisha’s husband Rajesh, have been actively participating in the rescue operations in the landslide-hit area to recover the bodies of their family members. The search is yet to yield any result.
“We lost our loved ones. Now we want to see their faces for the last time. My son has been working hard with the rescue team to recover the bodies, but he has not been able to find out the bodies yet. We are helpless,” said Padmini.
She said they were unable to shift to the relief camps before the disaster as the flood water blocked all their ways to go out of the colony. According to Padmini, the disaster happened around 8 pm on Thursday.
“We heard a loud noise, between 7 pm and 8 pm on Thursday. We thought that to be the sound of a helicopter coming to rescue us. But we saw water coming down from the hill, followed by mud and trees. We, who are still alive in the family, ran towards a road, which is on a higher plane. The other family members who ran sideways and to other directions got trapped under mud,” she said.
They had to stay in a safe hill area in Bhoothanam on Thursday night and later shifted to the nearby camp on Friday. Manisha said the government authorities in the area did not help them evacuate the area before the disaster. “Even after the disaster, the local people started rescue operations here. The authorities did not even alert us on the dangerous situation,” said Manisha.