Flood alerts issued for Sri Lankan capitals eastern suburbs

Colombo, Nov 30 (PTI) Flood alerts have been issued for most of the eastern suburbs in Sri Lanka’s capital here on Sunday morning, officials said as the island nation reels from catastrophic floods, landslides

and devastation from Cyclone Ditwah.

Colombo District Secretary Prasanna Ginige said the alerts were issued due to River Kelani rising to dangerous levels. He said schools in the danger areas are being used as relief centres for the flood displaced.

People have been warned to evacuate. However, the officials lamented a marked reluctance on their part to heed warnings.

Kelani River continues to be inundated with the flow from upper central hill areas where the devastation from Cyclone Ditwah was severe.

Athula Karunanayake, Director General of the Meteorological Department, said by 8 am today, Ditwah was spotted entering the Tamil Nadu coast 150 kilometres away from Sri Lanka’s northern Jaffna.

The country would only see light showers at certain locations but generally no adverse weather conditions would prevail over the island in the immediate future, he said.

Jayathissa Munasinghe, the assistant secretary of the National Disaster Relief Centre, said 234,503 families or 833,985 people were affected by the extreme weather.

“We are operating 919 centres to accommodate people and give relief to them. 122,822 people from 34,198 families are in them,” he said.

He said special government circulars have been issued, empowering the relevant authorities to make additional expenditure as deemed appropriate in order to carry out relief services.

Following India, the US and the Maldives, the Japanese Embassy here on Sunday said that an assessment team of the Japan International Cooperation Agency will leave for Sri Lanka. The medical personnel on the ground will monitor medical needs. Japan will also provide relief items such as tents and blankets.

On Saturday, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake declared a state of emergency throughout the country as the death toll rose to over 150.

The Disaster Management Centre (DMC) in a statement on Saturday night confirmed 159 deaths and 203 remain missing as search and relief operations continue across multiple districts. PTI CORR GSP GSP