"Have lost everything": Despair floods Kerala day after heavy rain

“I have lost everything…everything in my life…where should I go?…who will give me a shelter?” the lady, clad in a tattered saree, requested aloud crying and working right here and there. 

The sudden torrential rain, which pounded the village on Saturday, washed away each penny of her life time earnings and made her homeless rapidly. 

“I begged our Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan sir to give me two cents of land to construct a ”koora” (hut). I have nowhere to go. My daughters’ houses are also submerged. Now I am going to the church to see whether I will get a place there,” she instructed the journalists gathered on the place. 

It was the story of many hapless households in Koottickal, positioned in Kottayam district of Kerala, which suffered extreme destruction and human casualty as a consequence of a collection of landslips triggered by heavy rain yesterday. 

When the intense rain confirmed a slight dip this morning, numerous folks on this village could possibly be seen as displaced and have become the inmates of rehabilitation campus. 

Also Read: Kerala landslide toll touches 18 as rescuers dig deeper

Many aged villagers mentioned it was for the primary time of their decades-old life that they had been seeing and experiencing such extreme rainfall. 

A neighborhood store proprietor right here pointed to his new automotive, which could be seen as destroyed and partially hanging with its again wheels caught on a damaged wall in his home compound. 

“It was my new car parked in front of the house. I was not at home when the flood water suddenly gushed inside the house compound Saturday afternoon. My wife and children some how managed to run to the neighbour’s house,” the center aged man mentioned. 

He turned a bit emotional exhibiting the ”mundu” (dhoti) which he was carrying, saying that it was borrowed from the neighbour. 

Only life was saved and every little thing else was misplaced, he mentioned including that not even within the 2018 floods had he confronted such a horrible state of affairs. 

The state of affairs was not totally different in Kokkayar, a hilly hamlet in Idukki district as nicely, which additionally witnessed a collection of landslips and human casualty on Saturday in incessant rain. 

Also Read: Kerala floods: Army, Navy, Air Force roped in for rescue, relief ops

A shocked Rajamma, a girl villager, was but to consider {that a} four-member household together with kids, who was seen engaged in some building actions close to her residence on the foothills of hill, swept away by flood waters in entrance of her eyes. 

The aged lady mentioned she suggested the household to maneuver away from the place when water was seen coming down from the hill tops in a small scale. 

“But, they continued their work. Suddenly a portion of the hill, where they were standing, caved in… huge boulders started rolling down accompanied by a massive flood of water… I do not remember anything else,” the teary-eyed lady mentioned. 

George, a middle-aged man engaged in rescue operations, mentioned it was every little thing effective and calm within the village until 11 PM on Saturday. 

“But, the situation worsened after that. Around 10 big bridges and the same number of wooden bridges were washed away and the village became isolated soon,” he added. 

The Army, NDRF, police and the Fire Force together with the locals started rescue operations on Sunday morning at Koottickal and Kokkayar panchayats the place over a dozen individuals are listed to be lacking as a consequence of quite a few landslides accompanied by heavy downpour since Saturday. 

Officials mentioned rescue operators on Sunday morning recovered 4 extra our bodies from Koottickal panchayat taking the toll to eight.

Also Read: Centre will provide all help to Kerala, continuously monitoring floods situation: Shah