News
Orders to evacuate people from landslide-prone areas
View(s):Five District Secretaries have been told to identify and relocate people living in areas susceptible to landslides.
Earlier only warnings were issued to people living in such areas to vacate by themselves and find alternative accommodation.
The new move came as fresh landslide prone areas, including the Hantana mountain overlooking Kandy town, were identified as vulnerable areas with major cracks appearing on the surface.
Fresh cracks on a road in Hantane, Kandy
Disaster Management Ministry Secretary S.S. Niyanwala confirmed that directives had gone out to the Secretaries of the Kandy, Nuwara Eliya, Ratnapura, Kegalle and Kalutara Districts to find suitable locations for people living in vulnerable areas.
By yesterday afternoon, about 3,000 people had been evacuated from their houses, mostly in the Nuwara Eliya district, officials said. Teams from the National Building Research Organisation (NBRO) are assisting in identifying the areas vulnerable to landslides.
Kandy District Secretary H.M.P. Hitisekara said 76 families were evacuated from Hantana and put up at a school last afternoon. NBRO officers were checking the location every hour to see if there were changes.
Central Province Police Chief E.M.M. Ekanayake said police had been deployed to protect the houses from which the people had been evacuated.Meanwhile, the Meteorological Department issued a warning that the five districts vulnerable to landslides would experience rains measuring upto100 mm today, with strong winds in the Central Province.
Heavy rain was experienced in the Galle District yesterday causing floods in Neluwa, Tawalama, Elpitiya and Hiniduma while in the Kalutara District, Bulathsinhala, Agalawatta and Matugama areas received heavy rain.
At least 104 people have been killed so far in two weeks of floods and landslides with 99 still missing and feared dead.