Chaos in Colombo as floodwaters rise
Print Edition
HUNDREDS of small boats navigated deep floodwaters that have inundated thousands of homes in the Sri Lankan capital to deliver aid and rescue the elderly and sick from rooftops, as forecasters yesterday warned of more heavy rain.
Some stranded residents wading through shoulder-deep water in Colombo waved frantically at a passing army boat for help, pleading to be taken to dry ground.
“We have only the clothing that we are wearing,” said Eranda Dias, a 27-year-old mechanic who escaped with his mother and wife as brackish water filled their home in the city’s outskirts.
“We did not know what to do,” he said as soldiers pulled him up into the boat, explaining that the water had been a half-meter high most of the week and then suddenly rose. His mother, a retired teacher, worried about how she would receive her monthly pension now that her documents were lost.
The weeklong rains have caused chaos across Sri Lanka, unleashing deadly landslides and driving tens of thousands from their homes.
Since Monday, at least 64 people have died from lightning strikes, drowning, falling trees and landslides triggered by the rains, officials said. That includes at least 31 victims of mudslides that swallowed up three hillside villages in the central district of Kegalle, where hundreds were still missing.
Soldiers resumed searching for the missing yesterday, but held little hope of finding survivors. They recovered just one body during the day, with the search repeatedly halted as continuing rain threatened to trigger more landslides.
“It’s a very difficult task, but troops will carry out their work in the hope of finding more” in the remote area about 72 kilometers north of Colombo, said military spokesman Brigadier Jayanath Jayaweera.
The island was unlikely to get a reprieve soon, with the meteorological department warning that rains and stormy seas were expected to continue through the day, especially in the southwest.
Schools were closed across the country. Hundreds of thousands of people have been evacuated from homes across the island to some 594 shelters.
In the capital, more than 185,000 have been displaced, including tens of thousands taken to temporary shelters. Others were camping on rooftops and the top floors of buildings. Electricity has been cut in flooded areas to prevent electrocutions.
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