Flooding in Sri Lanka, Death Toll Rising

Flooding Death Toll Still Rising In Sri Lanka Nearly 30 have died in flooding and mudslides in Sri Lanka.

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COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (January 14, 2011)—Officials in Sri Lanka say four more people have died in floods and mudslides and 11 more have disappeared after days of heavy rain that has wreaked havoc on the island country, mainly in Eastern Province.
The Disaster Management Center said the new deaths, reported Friday, raised the total death toll to 27.

The number of people reported missing stands at 12.
The floods and mudslides have affected more than a million people, including 363,000 who have been forced from their homes.
Concerns about the spread of disease, including typhoid, are also growing as the floods caused sewage lines to overflow.

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More than 300,000 Flee Homes

Sri Lanka flooding forces more than 300,000 to flee homes

Mudslides bring death toll to 21 as government says more than 1 million people affected by rains

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• Jason Burke in Delhi
• guardian.co.uk, Thursday 13 January 2011 15.35 GMT
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Sri Lankan rescuers evacuate residents of the eastern district of Batticaloa by boat as floodwaters rise. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

More than 300,000 people have been forced out of their homes byflooding in Sri Lanka, with no sign of a let-up in the torrential rain on the island nation's east coast.

Three more people were killed by mudslides today, bringing the death toll to 21, officials said.

The government's Disaster Management Centre said more than 1 million people had been affected by the rains, with 325,000 made homeless.

Many villages remain cut off from supplies despite a huge relief effort involving tens of thousands of troops, transport helicopters and naval boats.

The deployment is the Sri Lankan military's biggest since the end of the decades-long civil war against Tamil separatist fighters in 2009.

Although senior officers reported that the flow of food to affected areas was going smoothly, senior local military officials reported that nine villages in the Muttur area of the eastern Trincomalee district were still cut off.

According to Muhammad Jihad, a community leader, tens of thousands of people were in need of food and medical supplies, with stocks quickly running out.

Across swathes of the east of the country, clean water supplies – usually wells – have been contaminated by the floodwaters, and there are fears of an outbreak of disease.

"We are monitoring the situation very carefully. There are no signs of an outbreak so far, but there is always the threat," Mervyn Fletcher, a spokesman for the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) in Colombo, said.

Unicef has sent 7,000 tarpaulins, as well as large quantities of water purifying tablets, to the affected areas.

"Access to some of these areas is difficult at the best of times," Fletcher added.

Pregnant women and young children are already being taken to hospital to protect them from waterborne diseases in districts in which floods have brought sewage into the streets, Dharma Wanninayake, a spokesman for the ministry of health said.

Many villagers remain in their flooded homes despite a danger from crocodiles and snakes. At least two people have been electrocuted.

The Sri Lankan president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, has warned of a food shortage after tens of thousands of hectares of rice fields were inundated.

Vegetable prices have risen sharply in recent days because distribution networks are blocked. Temperatures in Sri Lanka remained at historic lows, with more rain forecast.

Flooding in Sri Lanka

Floods leave a million Sri Lankans homeless

Updated 2 hours 6 minutes ago

The floods have left a million people homeless (Reuters: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds)

• RELATED STORY: Sri Lanka floods kill seven, leave 750,000 homeless

Flooding in Sri Lanka has forced more than one million people out of their homes, the government said, as it began distributing emergency food, clothing and bedding.

At least 23 people have died during a week of monsoon floods, with the centre and east of the island worst hit by rising water levels and mudslides.

A spokesman for the disaster management centre in Colombo said the eastern district of Batticaloa, which saw bloody fighting in the civil war that ended in 2009, was badly affected after heavier than usual seasonal rains.

"Some 541,000 people have been displaced in Batticaloa district alone where we have set up 275 camps to accommodate them," the spokesman said, adding that a total of 1,081,000 people have been displaced.

More than 350,000 people have taken shelter in state-run relief camps while other displaced people have moved to higher ground, often staying with friends or relatives, he said.

Retired school principal K Ratnavel, 63, said half of the coastal village of Ailadivembu, about 60 kilometres south of the Batticaloa town, was under water.

"My house is under six feet of water and I moved into a government building with my wife and three children," he said.

"We only have the clothes we are wearing. Everything else is lost.

"There are about 15,000 people at the local council office where we are sheltering and most of them need clothing."

He said many homes devastated by the December 2004 tsunami were affected by floods.

Rising water and continued rain have swamped vast tracks of land and cut off villages.

President Mahinda Rajapakse said that it was "the duty of all to join hands and help [the victims] at this hour of need without any discrimination or petty considerations".

Bad weather forced Mr Rajapakse to abandon a helicopter tour of flood-affected areas on Wednesday.

Security forces have been assisting the relief operations and 3,000 soldiers have already been deployed in the east. Air force helicopters and navy boats were also helping out.

The United Nations and local and international aid agencies are assisting relief operations.

Seven trucks loaded with UNICEF supplies, including water tanks, tarpaulins, chlorine tablets, sleeping mats and cooking gear, have been sent to Ampara and Batticaloa districts.

Sri Lanka depends on monsoon rains for irrigation and power generation, but the seasonal downpours frequently cause death and damage to property in low-lying areas as well as mountainous regions.

- AFP

Tags: disasters-and-accidents, floods, sri-lanka

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