One of the first informers of landslide in Wayanad dies before rescuers reach her
Wayanad (PTI): 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.
The ambulances and the first responders were unable to reach Neethu as the Chooralmala bridge had washed away.
However, her husband Jojo, their toddler and Jojo's mother survived the landslide.
"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 from that region while Neethu's body was recovered from else where.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
