Sabah girl watches landslide kill family

Tue, 09 Feb 1999, 00:00 WIB | Source: AP

KUALA LUMPUR (AP): A landslide crashed through homes on a
hillside in East Malaysia, killing 17 people and leaving one 10-
year-old girl to watch her family die, a news report said on
Monday.

Mahani Rudy awoke early on Sunday to a thunderous sound and
screams as rocks and heavy rain bombarded her family's squatter
home in the village of Kampung Gelam in Sabah state on Borneo
island.

The 10-year-old frantically shook her mother awake and helped
gather her brother and three sisters, aged three to 12. Heavy
rain had pounded the hillside village of 20 wooden stilt homes
for more than a week. On Sunday, in the pitch dark, four homes
were buried under tons of mud and debris.

When Hamsiah Pandan, 29, the mother, opened the front door to
flee, falling rocks and tree parts exploded toward her. A tree
branch snagged the leg of Mahani and she watched as her siblings
rushed to their mother's aid. All were buried alive.

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