Photos: Desperate SL villagers claw through mud as landslide buries 120 homes

[caption id=“attachment_1781323” align=“alignleft” width=“940”]  A Sri Lankan man digs the earth with bare hands at the spot where his house stood, looking for his family members, at the Koslanda tea plantation in Badulla district, about 220 kilometers (140 miles) east of Colombo, Thursday, Oct. 30, 2014. Disaster Management Minister Mahinda Amaraweera estimated the number of dead in Wednesday’s disaster at the plantation would be fewer than 100, although villagers said the figure could easily exceed 200: AP Photo[/caption] [caption id=“attachment_1781327” align=“alignleft” width=“940”]  Villagers carry a body of one of the victims of the landslide. The landslide buried around 120 homes, shops and a temple in the area: Reuters[/caption] [caption id=“attachment_1781329” align=“alignleft” width=“940”]  A man walks past a damaged house at the site of the mudslide. A local government official said that the area had been marked vulnerable since 2008, and evacuation drills had been conducted. However, workers had not been given alternative homes to move into (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)[/caption] [caption id=“attachment_1781331” align=“alignleft” width=“940”]  People gather to look at names of mudslide survivors displayed on a door at a relief center set up in a school in Punagala in Badulla district. Hundreds of desperate Sri Lankan villagers clawed through the wreckage of a deadly landslide Thursday, defying police orders after a top disaster official said there was no chance of finding more survivors in the broken red earth of the high-elevation tea plantation. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)[/caption] [caption id=“attachment_1781333” align=“alignleft” width=“940”]  A Sri Lankan man cries for his missing relatives. In another case, A 48-year-old truck driver who gave his name only as Raja said he lost all five members of his household — his wife, two sons, daughter-in-law and his 6-month-old grandchild. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)[/caption] [caption id=“attachment_1781335” align=“alignleft” width=“940”]  President Mahinda Rajapaksa visited the area on Thursday and ordered police to investigate if there had been any negligence by government officials in identifying the risks and informing local people before the disaster. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)[/caption] [caption id=“attachment_1781337” align=“alignleft” width=“940”]  Sri Lankan mudslide survivors sit at a relief center set up in a school in Punagala in Badulla district. Nearly 500 people, most of them children, spent the night at a nearby school after warnings of further landslides.(AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)[/caption]