Landslide needs assessment from the affected zone - The real story

What I wrote from my armchair in the City, was completely proved, upon my visit to the sites of the displaced. The LANDSLIDE

It is clear that the GOSL overstated the crisis as the complete death toll is no more than 60. This was completely manageable from internal resources of local govt. with only the search and rescue, which should have been faster, to be handled by a National Disaster response team.

It was very sad to see the generosity of our citizens wasted. AID was piled high, with the authorities NOT knowing what to do with them, and some plastic buckets donated were visibly crushed by the mountain of piles of donated stuff.

Frankly the bereaved, and the displaced have received at 10X the required donated stuff. There is an NGO that is actually trained in India, for such disasters providing sterling support, as they have brought a fully staffed team with counselors, technicians cooks and the lot, who have been given some rooms to take care of the displaced people there, and are on the ball, tending to ALL their temporary needs.

Now upon first investigation, there is a shortage of FEMALE police and forces personnel to protect the females, who may want to go to the toilets at night, that have been set up, and are afraid. Then there are those in genuine fear of returning to their homes, whilst there are others who have taken advantage of the situation and are saying they WILL NOT move from the temporary shelters until they are provided with permanent better and good housing.

Then there are others who are relatives of the displaced, who have also come to the camps and claim housing there, as they know they will be well taken care of. This has increased the numbers, and the GOSL is unable therefore to take stock of the real problem at hand.

It was raining when I was there, and cold, but hot cooked food was available and the people seemed to cope. There was an issue of passes to come in and out, as all and sundry were loitering in pursuit of some largesse for themselves, their families or some personal use.

It was the potential waste that I was concerned about and the fact that when the next landslide comes, the generosity would not be there. There were a large amount of water bottles donated, but they really did not need water at all as the facilities were quite adequate in that respect. So as I said in my previous entry it was OVERKILL!