Kerala wayanad disaster: Death toll rises to 276...

The dead toll rose to 276 as rescuers continued to go through the huge debris, revealing the full extent of devastation from the landslides that almost completely destroyed the Mundakkai hamlet and two surrounding villages early on tuesday morning. There have been more than 200 recorded injuries. On wednesday, the kerala government declared that 227 individuals remain unaccounted for.

Thanks to their fast thinking and perseverance, a three-member family in Mundakkai narrowly avoided the enormous landslide that swept away hundreds of people and homes early on tuesday morning. A kilometer from the location of the landslide, on the banks of Punchirivattom, a tiny river, lived 25-year-old software engineer Muhammad Basil, his mother Suhara (53), and father Abdul Hameed (57). The family left their home for a relative's residence ten minutes before the calamity happened, just in time to see their outdoor space flooded by the rising water of the river.

We had a hard time falling asleep due to the strong rain, so we stayed up all night. We discovered the water level was rising and getting inside our house at 12:30 in the morning. Being ready for such circumstances, we made the hasty decision to seek safety at my uncle's residence, which is only 100 meters away. But as soon as we got there, Basil remarked, we could hear the thunderous sound of rushing water, and that home started to tremble.

Lok Sabha LoP Congresswoman priyanka gandhi and rahul gandhi arrive at the airport in Delhi; they will shortly depart for wayanad, Kerala.

"Central agencies did not issue any early warnings regarding Wayanad." Principal Secretary Pinarayi Vijayan

The Union home minister amit Shah's claim in parliament that Kerala was given advance notice of the wayanad calamity was sharply denied by the state government. Pinarayi Vijayan, the chief minister, criticized Shah's statements on wednesday for being wildly out of context. Clarifying that just an orange notice had been issued in the impacted area and that the central meteorological service was forecasting rainfall between 115mm and 204mm, Vijayan stated that this was not the time to assign blame. The actual rainfall, which fell in two separate 24-hour periods of 200 mm and 372 mm, for a total of 572 mm in 48 hours, greatly outweighed this estimate. Prior to the catastrophe, the area was never under a red alert; nonetheless, one was issued at six in the morning following the event.