For many, it came and swept away with it all that they had, but for most, the landslide that occurred on Monday evening could have been so much worse. People living in the lower parts of the area in Anakkampoyil that was affected by a series of landslides may have fully or partially lost their houses and other belongings but most of them are thankful for a warning from nature that saved their lives. “At around 4.30pm, water started coming and it contained much higher silt than usual. Then the people residing there knew that something was wrong and many of them moved out of the area. Small torrents of water kept coming and it was around 5.30pm that the biggest wave came, bearing with it mud, trees and boulders. It came and went fast, lasting less than 5 minutes and only one or two houses in the area still had people when it came,” said John whose house was flooded during the ordeal. He himself did not think much of the incident until he saw someone floating past. “I was just standing there watching the water flow past until my brother saw something coming towards us that resembled a person. We then realized that it was actually a woman that was coming floating by and we pulled her out. Thankfully, she was all right,” he said. And he added that while more water came rushing down later, further damage was prevented by the boulders and mud that diverted the water through a less populous area. “If the water had continued flowing along the same path, then a lot more houses would have been washed away, but the rocks and the silt diverted the stream and saved many houses,” he said.
Prakash, who resides in nearby Manjuvayal where another of the landslides took place, said that the timing of the slides ensured that it did not take more lives than it did. “If it had happened earlier, there would have been buses packed with school children playing down the road which is now buried under mud and boulders. If it had happened at night, then the people who escaped before the landslide came would not have had the chance to do so. Overall the timing of the disaster ensured that it did not end up being of bigger proportions,” he said.
Residents though are puzzled as to how such a disaster occurred in Pulloorampara which is not known as a landslide prone area. “We never had a reputation as a landslide prone area. The last big landslide that occurred here was more than 35 years ago and even that was not of this magnitude. We are all puzzled so as to how this happened,” said John.
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