Kerala landslide: Houses washed away; many still missing

Those frantic hours were a whirlwind, fresh in 33-year-old Safna Tuttu’s mind. Her family – her husband Nishad and their 14-year-old son – were all fast asleep in their single-storey house in Chooralmala in Kerala’s Wayanad district.

Those frantic hours were a whirlwind, fresh in 33-year-old Safna Tuttu’s mind. Her family – her husband Nishad and their 14-year-old son – were all fast asleep in their single-storey house in Chooralmala in Kerala’s Wayanad district. A little after 1am on Tuesday, her phone rang. On the other end was her neighbour, breathless and frantic, the first indication that something was gravely wrong. “She was standing on the terrace, the ground floor completely inundated by swirling water. Our house was not affected till then because we were on slightly higher ground, and we ran over and rescued her family,” Safna said.

Relief personnel carry the body of a victim, during a search and rescue operation at a site following landslides in Wayanad on July 30, 2024. (Photo by R. J. Mathew / AFP) (AFP)

In many ways, that phone call saved them. Minutes later, they heard a roar and the earth shook beneath them. “We quickly ran out on the main road,” Safna said. The power was out, and community Whatsapp groups had sent warnings in the morning of a herd of elephants roaming around in the neighbourhood. “We didn’t know what to do,” she said.

By this time, with the rain incessant, and the water pouring past the village, they knew they were in the middle of a landslide. “Our home is closer to Chooralmala town, so we felt safer here. But we couldn’t sleep,” she said. A little after 4am, just as Safna lit the stove to make some tea, there was another roar, louder and even more ominous. “It sounded as if chunks of metal were being unloaded from a truck right next to you. We were really shaken this time,” she said.

The family ran out of the house, just as many others did, and together, they took an old village road to climb to higher ground. They left for her mother’s house at 6am, only returning home at 10am. Before her was a village devastated. Homes that sat on the edge of the Iruvazhinji river had disappeared; the 30-year-old bridge on the river was washed away and most of the buildings of the Government Vocational Higher Secondary School (GVHSS), Vellarmala, where her son studied, lay in pieces.

In that moment, Safna knew she was fortunate; she had survived the night. At least 121 others hadn’t.

Forty-year-old Vijayan P, for instance, was inconsolable on Tuesday morning. His home in Mundakkai had disappeared in the swirling water. As had his mother and sister.

“My mother’s hand slipped from my hand when I was holding her, and I saw her slipping into the slush and mud below me. I have still not found her remains,” he said.

NK Sukumaran, a local body member from Attamala who took part in relief efforts on Tuesday, told HT that at least 30 people from his ward were relocated from late on Monday night. “Seeing the intensity of the rains, we knew something could happen and we quickly asked them to shift to a relief camp on higher ground. We asked others also to move, but many refused our calls. They thought their homes were safe. Almost all of them are now dead,” he said.

Describing the scenes at the site of the landslide in Mundakkai and Attamala, Sukumaran said, “There are just bodies everywhere, some buried under rubble of their homes and others flowing in the river. It is a terrifying situation. If we had been able to access Mundakkai in the morning itself, we could have rescued several people. But the state of the river was dangerous. There was heavy rain and dense fog. It was only around 3pm that rescue personnel were able to enter Mundakkai,” he said.

Days of frantic relief and rescue, and a scale of tragedy only beginning to unfold itself, lie ahead.