THICK MUD HAMPERS LAOS DAM RESCUE
Retreating floodwaters have cut access to villages and covered area with thick mud
RESCUERS battled thick mud and flood waters across a swathe of remote southern Laos to find survivors of a deadly dam burst that submerged entire villages, as an official suggested faulty construction may have led to the disaster.
The number of dead and missing from Monday’s dam collapse remains a mystery because of the complexity of the rescue operation in an inaccessible area, and the secretive reflexes of Laos’s Communist authorities.
“The search is complicated, many areas cannot be accessed by cars or boats. Also we have limited equipment to bring to the field,” deputy secretary of Attapeu province committee Meenaporn Chaichompoo said on Friday.
The head of the rescue mission Kumriang Authakaison said yesterday that eight people were confirmed dead, down from 27 reported by officials earlier this week. He added that 123 were confirmed missing.
But conflicting information swirled about how many remain unaccounted for after Chaichompoo said “we can’t find 1,126 people”, without elaborating.
A stretch of land dozens of kilometres long and wide was submerged when the Xe-Namnoy dam collapsed after heavy rains.
Slowly retreating floodwaters have cut off access to villages and covered much of the area with thick, sticky mud.
“This is one of the worst I’ve ever seen. Especially because we’re not a very strong country in terms of rescue operations,” a volunteer rescue worker said.