Cyclone Ditwah swept across Sri Lanka on Friday, leaving 46 people dead and 23 more missing, officials said, with the weather department warning the storm could intensify as it moves across the island over the next 12 hours.
Most fatalities were attributed to landslides triggered by torrential rainfall exceeding 300 mm (11.8 inches) over the past 24 hours as Cyclone Ditwah lashed the island nation, with the eastern and central regions most severely affected.
Displacement And Evacuation
Nationwide, 43,991 people were evacuated to schools and other public shelters, the Disaster Management Centre (DMC) said in a statement, including families stranded on rooftops.
Schools remained closed, train services were suspended, and the Colombo Stock Exchange announced an early trading halt as heavy rains persisted.
Heavy rainfall, strong winds, and falling trees and utility poles have caused numerous power outages across the country, as reported by Sri Lankan newspapers. As of this morning, more than 65,000 outages had been reported, of which nearly 26,000 have already been restored, said the Daily Mail.
“We are continuing rescue operations in the worst-hit areas, but some villages are difficult to reach because roads are blocked by landslides…we are doing our best to get everyone to safety,” Brigadier S. Dharmawickrema, Emergency Operations Director at the DMC, told Reuters.
Help From India
Sri Lanka may divert flights from its main airport to Trivandrum or Cochin airports in India if conditions worsen, Ports and Civil Aviation Minister Anura Karunathilake told reporters.
Local media reported that six flights, including those from Muscat, Dubai, New Delhi, and Bangkok, had already been redirected from Colombo’s Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA).
The Daily Mail Sri Lanka reported that the island nation requested assistance from the Indian warship INS Vikrant, currently docked in Colombo, including the use of its aircraft, for ongoing rescue and relief operations amid the severe weather caused by Cyclonic Storm Ditwah, which India has agreed to.
The New York Times says that Cyclone Ditwah is Sri Lanka’s deadliest natural disaster since 2017, when flooding and landslides killed over 200 people and displaced hundreds of thousands of others.
(With inputs from Reuters)
