Rain, debris, leeches: India landslide survivors recall 'night of horrors'

MEPPADI, India - Whenever it rains very heavily in the hills of Wayanad in southern India, many people stay awake, recalling a 2019 landslide that killed about 20 people.

On July 29 as well, housewife M Fathima said she and her extended family in Mundakkai village stayed awake as incessant rain poured down during the day and into the night.

"When the first landslide hit around 1am, we were all awake," said Fathima, 52. "Everyone in the room was crying. It felt like death was imminent."

At least one other landslide followed.

The family of about 20 people moved out early on July 30 with other villagers who survived the two landslides, Fathima said. It was night, and houses were scattered, so they were unaware that scores had died in the area.

Nearly 100 of the villagers, including children and pregnant women, trekked for kilometres through the devastation of debris, wet soil, large rocks and uneven terrain downhill.

Rescuers reached them soon and shifted them to a relief camp in the town of Meppadi, but Fathima remains distressed.

"We don't know what is left of our houses once we go back," she said from the camp.

The landslides that hit Wayanad district in Kerala state, a popular tourist destination, killed more than 170 people and left hundreds homeless, with more than 8,000 people sheltered in the safety of camps.

Most victims died in their sleep, as torrents of mud, boulders, water and trees swept through tea and cardamom estates and plantation villages, burying people or washing them away.

The authorities and some experts have blamed the disaster on unexpected very heavy rain caused by the warming of the Arabian Sea. Rescue has been slowed by incessant rain, with the army racing to build a temporary bridge across a