As Cyclone Deaths Pass 150, Sri Lanka Is Overwhelmed by Rescue Demand

Rescue efforts across the nation of 23 million have been hampered by disruptions in transport and telecommunications.

The calls for help have been fast and frequent, as large parts of Sri Lanka remain under water and the death toll from Cyclone Ditwah, still battering the island nation, has surpassed 150.

Dozens of people climbed to the roof of a house in a central region of the country, about 100 miles north of the capital, Colombo, after the water rose overnight to submerge the bus they had been traveling in. Nearly a hundred students in the country’s east remained stranded in hostels with no food or water, as floodwaters closed in. Ten families, including children and older people, were stuck on the second floor of a residential building.

The cyclone’s severity has overwhelmed Sri Lanka’s emergency services. The enormous flooding across the country of 23 million has been nearly unprecedented, while disruptions in transport and telecommunications have hampered rescue efforts.

Deaths were reported in half of the country’s 25 districts, and 20 reported having to move people to shelters.

The natural disaster adds to the struggles of a country still trying to leave behind the scars of a decades-old civil war and the choking impact of a recent economic crash.

The economic recovery since the crash in 2022 still remains fragile, with growth slow and poverty still double the levels before the crisis, according to the World Bank. The storm’s destruction will particularly affect the country’s tourism industry, a major source of foreign exchange, just when it was preparing for the start of a busy season.

The country’s Disaster Management Center said by Saturday evening that 191 people were missing in addition to the 153 dead. Many local officials fear that the death toll could rise much higher as the rains slow, allowing emergency teams to reach devastated areas. In one district alone, Badulla, in the country’s central region, nearly 50 deaths were reported, while 41 people were still missing, the district’s top administrative officer said.

“The main problem is that we still haven’t been able to reach some areas in the district that have reported landslides and other disasters,” the officer, Prabath Abeywardena, said.

The floods had affected nearly 400,000 people across the country by Saturday, forcing nearly 45,000 into shelters. Rail services remained suspended, and many highways were blocked. Widespread communication outages had been reported, and a quarter of the population was without power.

“This is an experience that Sri Lankans have not faced before,” Sakura Dilthara, a senior official from the Irrigation Department, said of the flooding’s severity. “From 73 major waterways, 53 are overflowing at the moment.”

Even as Sri Lanka’s Meteorology Department predicted that the cyclone would pass the island by the end of the day, churning toward India’s southern coast, evacuation warnings continued for people in Colombo living on low-lying areas of the Kelani River basin. A forecast map for Saturday painted a majority of the island red, warning that torrential rains would continue for much of the day.

India’s Foreign Ministry said it had sent 27 tons of relief material by air and sea, including tents, blankets and hygiene kits, as well as rescue and search teams with 80 personnel to help in the emergency efforts. The United States was also committing $2 million to support immediate relief efforts, the U.S. Embassy in Colombo said.

For families of the stranded, it has been a trying time, with many getting no updates on their loved ones because of electrical outages and disrupted communication lines.

Efforts to rescue the passengers stranded on the rooftop in central Sri Lanka were complicated by high water and limited visibility. Helicopters found it hard to land in the area. A rescue boat heading their way got stuck. President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who has declared a state of emergency, oversaw the rescue operations in the predawn hours Saturday. Eventually 40 of the passengers were rescued by early Saturday, with 20 still in need of help.

For the 10 families stuck on the second floor of a residential building, where they had been since Friday afternoon, a rescue operation that began overnight was continuing.

Mohamed Riyaz, who himself was stuck in a different neighborhood about 30 miles from the area, was desperately calling rescue lines to help his family in the building. But he was struggling to get through.

“The situation is turning bad,” he said late on Friday evening. By midnight, rescue boats were still trying to reach them.

Early Saturday, a relative said that boats had managed to rescue children from the building, as well as a mother with an infant. The rest had moved up to the third floor to escape the surging waters and were awaiting their turn.

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