|
Land slides kill at least 13 in central Sri Lanka
Associated Press,
Fri January 12, 2007 05:44 EST .
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) _ At least 13 people were killed in landslides in the tea growing region of central Sri Lanka on Friday, officials said, as bad weather was delaying rescue and relief.
The military listed 13 dead in its Web site, adding that 450 homes have been affected, leaving 5,000 residents without shelter.
``There are many places where there have been landslides,'' said D.P.G. Kumarasiri, a senior bureaucrat in central Nuwara Eliya district 180 kilometers (117 miles) east of capital, Colombo.
Kumarasiri said access has been cut off in some areas and officials are trying to evacuate people.
However, bad weather was delaying the efforts, said a spokesman for the Ministry of Disaster Management.
``We have sought help from the air force, but bad weather and poor visibility are delaying rescue and relief,'' said Lal Sarathakumara.
The National Building Research Organization has sent its people to the area to identify areas at risk for landslides and evacuate people, said official Kumari Weerasinghe.
Nuwara Eliya is a mountainous region known for lush tea gardens. It is prone to landslides.
Discuss this story
Published: Fri Jan 12 08:46:27 EST 2007
|
Express your opinions, meet others at the
We have lost a great mathe-
matician, engineer, scientist, an old timer
of SLNet/LAcNet and a former LAcNet director. Pubudu Dayawansa (Daya)
was instrumental in carrying out many LAcNet projects. He was
responsible in setting up "Colombo Calling" a website that was
designed to carry weekly articles from Sri Lankan Academic community
and Human Rights activists. [
