Neethu Jojo, a woman staff of a private hospital in Wayanad, was probably one of the first to alert the emergency services about the devastating landslide that hit this district on July 30, but lost her life before rescuers could reach her.
A recording of her call seeking help for herself and a couple of other families who were trapped in her house after the first wave of the devastating landslide hit Chooralmala here, has gone viral.
According to the recording, she narrates the details of the horror they faced in the early morning of July 30 when the first wave of landslide hit her house.
In her distress call, she was heard saying that the water was flowing inside her house, which was surrounded by debris including cars swept away in the landslide.
In the voice recording she says that five to six families, who used to live near her house, have escaped from nature’s fury and sought refuge at her place which was comparatively safer.
Neethu was apparently speaking to a staff member of Dr Moopen’s Medical College who sought all the details and assured that help was on the way.
She was probably one of the first informers of the incident but could not be saved unfortunately and her body was found days later.
In the call recording she can be heard saying she was making panic calls to everyone she knew.
“There is a landslide at Chooralmala. I live behind the school here. Can you please send someone to help us?” she was heard saying over the phone.
One of the first calls Neethu made was to Dr. Shanavas Palliyal, the DGM of Dr. Moopen’s Medical College, where she was working as an office staff of the nursing college.
“She sounded very distressed and was calling for help. I immediately informed the police and our ambulance from the hospital left for Chooralmala. The road was blocked due to uprooted trees.
“Our ambulance driver and another staff member were regularly in contact with her but after the second wave of landslide, the connection was lost,” Palliyal told PTI.
“It looks like, after the first landslide, she and other neighbours got trapped in a room and were unable to escape before the next one,” Palliyal said.
Four staff members of the hospital, including Neethu, lost their lives in the devastating landslip that struck Mundakkai and Chooralmala. The side of the house in which she and the others were trapped was destroyed in the landslide. Around three bodies were found in that region while Neethu’s body was recovered from elsewhere.
The Kerala government on Saturday announced that they will establish a new township. The initiative will be conducted to ensure the safe rehabilitation of those who were displaced by the catastrophic landslide that occurred in the Mundakkai region.
In the early, dark hours of July 30, nature staged a macabre dance on two sleepy villages in the lap of the Vellarimala range in the Western Ghats. In a few minutes, roughly 200 households in the biggest ever landslide in Kerala’s history, were wiped out.
When the sun rose in the morning, Mundakkai and Chooralmala, twin settlements in Wayanad’s Vellarimala village in Mepadi panchayat had vanished, transforming a landscape of rolling hills into a horrifying trail of havoc. A couple of landslides that Vellarimala unleashed at 1 a.m. and 4:10 a.m. have killed 406 people so far and injured about 240. The number of people missing is still nearly 300. Chief Minister Pinarai Vijayn, Rahul Gandhi,Mohal Lal, Suresh Gopi, and other prominent persons visited the affected site for rescue and rehabilitation coordination.
The Rescue teams, including Indian Army, NDRF along with local emergency response departments are working against the time under harsh conditions in Kerala’s Wayanad to search for survivors trapped in collapsed buildings, four days after massive landslides struck the hill district.
The rescue efforts have been hindered by several challenges, including treacherous terrain due to destroyed roads and bridges, and a shortage of heavy equipment, making it difficult for rescue teams to clear mud and huge uprooted trees that fell on houses and other buildings.
Meanwhile, the Indian Army has completed the construction of 190-ft-long Bailey Bridge in record time. The bridge will help connect the worst-affected areas of Mundakkai and Chooralmala over the Iruvanjippuzha River. The bridge connecting the two places had washed away in the devastating landslide that happened on Tuesday.
The Indian Army achieved a major accomplishment with the successful completion of the construction of the 190-ft-long Bailey bridge that will help connect the worst-affected areas of Mundakkai and Chooralmala. The construction of the bridge started at 9.30 pm on Wednesday and was completed by 5.30 pm on Thursday. Following the vehicle of the commander, the Army medical unit and a military truck passed through the bridge, after which it was handed over to the civil administration.
