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　　200 Families Feared Buried in Sri LankaLandslides

　　More than 200 families are reported missing incentral Sri Lanka after landslides.

　　Heavy rains caused the slides which buried threefarming villages near the town of Aranayaka inKegalle district. The Sri Lankan Red Cross said rescuers had found 180 people so far. It alsosaid 14 bodies were recovered.

　　Local civilians joined police and hundreds of soldiers in digging through the mud with theirhands, sticks and shovels to search for survivors. Officials halted the operation when nightcame. The search and rescue effort is to re-start in the morning.

　　Continuing rain, heavy fog and electrical outages in the area interfered with the search work.Officials warned that the rain could cause additional landslides.

　　The Red Cross said that some people listed as missing may have left the area earlier afterwarnings of possible landslides.

　　One woman, 70-year-old A.G. Alice from the village of Siripura, said she did not know where anyof her nine children are.

　　In the same village, a man said four members of his family were in the same house when thelandslide hit. He said he cannot find any.

　　A government official said hundreds of people escaped the disaster. The official said they arebeing treated for minor injuries.

　　Villagers said they began hearing and seeing the huge piles of mud and debris crash aroundtheir homes Tuesday afternoon.

　　"I heard a huge sound like a plane crashing into the earth," said 52-year-old A.G. Kamala. Shehad just returned to her home in Siripura village. "I opened my door. I could not believe myeyes, as I saw something like a huge fireball rolling down the mountain and again a hugesound."

　　The rain has caused flooding in areas across Sri Lanka, including the country's capital Colombo.Officials said about 135,000 Sri Lankans had to flee their homes and are now in temporaryshelters.

　　Sri Lanka's Disaster Management Center said lightning strikes and smaller landslides also killedat least 11 people over the past few days.