She went to warn her son of disaster, perished in Idukki landslide

In the early hours of Saturday, when most residents of Idukki's Morkkad were fast asleep, a frantic man, covered in mud, came knocking on his neighbour's door, crying for help. Although he could barely breathe, he managed to convey that a landslide had engulfed his home, trapping his wife and son inside.

Ravi, along with his wife Sumathi and son Ratheesh, earned their living primarily through farming on a plot near their home. However, after the landslide that struck around 3 am on Saturday, Ravi lost his house, his land and his wife.

On Friday evening, the unsuspecting village went to sleep without much worry despite the pouring rain, as landslides and mudslides were uncommon in the region. However, an eerie feeling had gripped Ravi and Sumathi ahead of the tragedy. "They had been awake because of the rain and stepped out onto the veranda after hearing a noise. But Sumathi went back inside to wake up their son. That's when the land came crashing down on them," Jamanesh Kesavan, who immediately rushed to the family's aid, told Onmanorama.

Having escaped the tragedy by mere inches, Ravi knew he would not be able to save his family on his own. He immediately rushed to Jamanesh's home and sought his help. "We live quite far downhill. But in the dark, Ravi could not see the path to the homes closer to him, which have smaller approach roads. He just ran straight down the road to our house," Jamanesh said.

Power was disrupted in the torrential rain that battered the village. But Jamanesh, along with another neighbour, quickly grabbed their torches and got to work, undeterred by the downpour.

"When we reached the spot, we could hear Ratheesh screaming for help, but we could not see anything," he said.

In the pitch darkness, lit only by two torchlights, an arm stuck out from underneath the mess of mud and concrete. "That's how they found Ratheesh, who was trapped under a concrete slab. It was because his hand was sticking out," Suma Narayanan, who lives just 50 metres from the site, said.

Even though Ratheesh was rescued in time to save his life, the search for Sumathi continued until dawn. "We searched near where their house had stood. But her body was found 100 metres down the road. We never expected it to be carried so far away," Suma said, still shocked by the incident.

Woken by the horrifying news, the couple's daughter Rasna, who lives about seven kilometres away in Kolapra, rushed to the spot to find her brother being taken to hospital. But she could not find her father. The large pile of mud and debris brought down by the landslide had split the plot in two, creating a barrier. "My father was on the other side. I couldn't cross over to where he was standing, nor could he come over to where I was. We were both stranded," Rasna told Onmanorama. "It was so dark that I could barely see anything. I don't even know what state the house is in," she added.

"Never in my life have I heard of something like this happening here. Such an incident has never even appeared in the stories passed down by our forefathers," Suma said, expressing her shock over the incident.

For Suma, helping Sumathi call her friends and relatives had become a neighbourly ritual. "She didn't know how to make calls on her phone. So she would come down to our house and ask me to help," Suma said. "Even yesterday, she was standing here by the road after I dialled someone for her," Suma recalled in shock.

According to Rasna, Ratheesh is continuing treatment in the intensive care unit (ICU) at St Mary's Hospital in Thodupuzha but will soon be shifted to the District Hospital in Thodupuzha. "The doctors said all the necessary facilities would be available there," she said. Meanwhile, Sumathi will be laid to rest later in the day once the post-mortem examination is completed.