‘We have nowhere to go’: Sri Lankan residents recount damage caused by Cyclone Ditwah

COLOMBO – Since 2016, Madam M. Devika, 54, has watched the Kelani River creep closer to her home.

The floods that year had swept away her neighbour’s house, and she and her family of nine others living in a one-storey home in Halmulla village in central Colombo had grown accustomed to yearly floods, which usually occur in July.

But on Nov 28, the scale of the disaster was like nothing she had witnessed before, she told The Straits Times on Dec 20, during a visit by the Singapore Red Cross (SRC) to Sri Lanka to help with disaster relief efforts.

The year-end flood was triggered by relentless rainfall and run-off from upstream waterways as Cyclone Ditwah tore through the island.

The cyclone made landfall on Nov 28
, causing floods, dam breaches and landslides that devastated both rural and urban areas in Sri Lanka. Residents are now rebuilding their homes in attempts to return to normality.

Described as the “largest and most challenging natural disaster” in the country’s history, the cyclone killed more than 640 people and displaced over 66,000.

A Dec 11 analysis
by World Weather Attribution (WWA) found that the deadly storms that ravaged the region were “supercharged” by higher sea temperatures and made worse by rapid deforestation. WWA is an international effort that analyses the possible influence of climate change on extreme weather events.

Almost a month since Cyclone Ditwah hit, the recovery process is still ongoing.

During a visit to Halmulla on Dec 20, ST saw homes whose concrete walls had fallen. Water marks stained walls and mud covered parts of floors. Some homes had no furniture, likely because the items were damaged or carried away by the flood.

Damaged homes, lost livelihoods and the looming threat of diseases such as dengue are making the recovery process challenging.

After the disaster hit, Madam Devika and her family stayed in a temporary shelter for about two weeks. They returned to their home about a week ago to find the river running just metres from their doorstep, with only a strip of crumbling soil and fallen trees separating her home from the water body. But like many people living in vulnerable communities, she finds moving away from a disaster-prone zone an unlikely option.

“We have nowhere to go because this is our home,” she said. “We don’t have any option to move to another place because we can’t afford a new house.”

On Dec 20, the Sri Lanka Red Cross Society set up a medical camp in Halmulla so that residents can go for basic health check-ups closer to home. At the camp, they can have their blood pressure and glucose level checked, consult doctors and request medication.

“After the flood, some residents fell sick, but they are busy and they don’t go to the hospital,” said Mr Chamod Savinda, a coordinator at the Sri Lanka Red Cross Society.

“That is why we brought the medical camp to them... It is convenient for them to come here, and they don’t have to pay for transportation to go elsewhere,” he said, adding that similar camps will be set up in other flood-hit areas.

There were about 140 beneficiaries at the medical camp.

SRC has sent a team to join its Sri Lankan counterparts to support the ongoing relief efforts.

The team of four trained responders from Singapore is working with the Sri Lanka Red Cross Society to support temporary shelters and medical camps for the flood-affected communities, and to assess evolving humanitarian needs to aid early recovery planning, among other roles.

While they are no strangers to flooding, Sri Lankans said the scale of this disaster was the worst.

Ms Wasana Kumari, who also lives in the area, said she initially did not think much about the flooding, as in the past, the water level rose up to about 45cm.

“But (in this flood) the water came up to 6 feet (1.8m). It was a very quick. Within 50 hours, the whole village was flooded,” said the 50-year-old volunteer with the Sri Lanka Red Cross Society.

“It is a very dangerous situation. After a flood, walls are weakened. And after several floods, the walls are very weak,” she said, adding that there were floods in 2023 and 2024.

Ms Wasana added that floods are more common during the monsoon period in July, and are usually not expected in November and December.

During the flood, she and her family took refuge on the second level of their house, which she said was built in anticipation of such scenarios. Her home is one of the several in the area with a second storey, built partly to reduce vulnerability to flooding.

Everything on the first floor was destroyed, said Ms Wasana, who has lived in the village her whole life.

Livelihoods in the area also took a hit as the deluge damaged tools needed to earn a living.

In Wellewatte, about a 10-minute drive from Halmulla, a family living by a canal had all three of their carpentry machines damaged. Two of them are beyond repair, said Ms Shriyani De Mel, whose husband owns the business.

Residents there were also in the midst of rebuilding, with debris still being cleared by tractors. The smell of mud and smoke hung in the air when ST visited.

At the Red Cross medical camp in Halmulla, ST saw about 40 baby kits containing diapers and health supplements for children below two years old being distributed.

Among those who received a kit was 20-year-old R. Mannisha, who has a one-year-old daughter.

She said she had moved to the village only about a month ago, and most of the things in her house were destroyed by the flood. Now, with no transport available, she could not replace the items.

“Every electrical item, like fans and the heater, and mattresses were destroyed. We are left with only two plastic chairs,” she said.

The floods in Sri Lanka caused by Cyclone Ditwah were among the climate-induced disasters that have hit Asia in recent weeks.

Between November and December, cyclones and extreme monsoon rain have ravaged Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia, killing thousands and displacing millions.

SRC has urged Singaporeans to help affected communities in Sri Lanka through the organisation’s fund-raising appeal, which ends on Jan 31.

Funds that are raised through this public appeal will go directly towards urgent relief and early recovery efforts in close coordination with the Sri Lanka Red Cross Society.

Singaporeans can donate via credit card at the SRC’s Giving.sg
 page for affected communities in Sri Lanka. They may also donate via PayNow using the QR code available on the SRC’s website.