Sri Lanka Cyclone Ditwah kills 69 people by flooding, mudslides

by · UPI

Nov. 28 (UPI) -- Soldiers in Sri Lanka worked to rescue hundreds trapped by flooding Friday because of Cyclone Ditwah, which has killed at least 69 people, with another 34 missing.

Helicopters and boats rescued people from roofs, treetops and villages. The country's Disaster Management Center said more victims were found in the worst-affected central region where people were buried alive by mudslides, The Guardian reported.

Some entire towns, including some heritage sites, were under water, and videos showed waters reaching second stories of buildings and sweeping away bridges, The New York Times reported.

Rail services are suspended, some major highways are blocked, communications and power outages are reported in parts of the country. In Colombo, the main international airport said that more than a dozen flights have been diverted to other parts of the country or to India.

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The cyclone landed on Sri Lanka's eastern coast on Friday morning.

The DMC said more rain is coming, with Ditwah moving away from the north toward Tamil Nadu in India Sunday.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted on X condolences to its neighbor and vowed relief.

"I express my heartfelt sympathy to the people of Sri Lanka who have lost their loved ones due to the devastating cyclone. I pray for the safety, well-being of all affected families, and that they may swiftly return to normalcy. ... India stands strongly with Sri Lanka at this moment when Sri Lanka needs help."

VSA Ratnayake, 56, said he had to leave his flooded home in Kaduwela, near Colombo. "I think this could be the worst flood in our area for three decades," Ratnayake told The Guardian. "I remember a flood in the 1990s when my house was under 7 feet of water."

"This is the most widespread rainfall in the last decade, covering the entire island," A. Gunasekara, director general of Sri Lanka's irrigation department, told The Times in an interview.

"Most deaths in the district were due to landslides, people buried under houses," said L.U. Kumara, director of the disaster management organization in Badulla. "We're moving people to emergency relief centers. Our next problem is food and clean water, but we are coordinating with different government authorities to provide these necessities."

Officials say they expect the flooding to be worse than in 2016, which killed 71 people.

In 2017, flooding and landslides killed more than 200 people and displaced hundreds of thousands.