Torrential rains and floods triggered by Cyclone Ditwah have killed 153 people across Sri Lanka so far, with another 191 still missing, the country’s Disaster Management Centre (DCM) said on Saturday.
The DMC director general, Sampath Kotuwegoda, said relief operations were under way with 78,000 people moved to nearly 800 state-run welfare centres after their homes were destroyed by the week-long heavy rains.
Among the dead were 11 residents of a care home for elderly people that was flooded in the north-central district of Kurunegala district on Saturday afternoon.
The weather system was moving away from the island towards India, the DMC said, but it had already left widespread destruction with more than 500,000 people affected nationwide.
“Relief operations with the help of the armed forces are under way,” Kotuwegoda told reporters in Colombo.
Thousands of police and military personnel are distributing food, clearing roads and moving trapped families to safety.
The military rescued 69 bus passengers in a 24-hour operation on Saturday, including a German tourist, who had been stranded in the Anuradhapura district.
One of the passengers, speaking to Agence France-Presse from the hospital, said navy personnel helped them climb on to the roof of a house after using ropes to guide them through the flood water.
“We were very lucky … while we were on the roof, part of it collapsed … three women fell into the water, but they were helped back on to the roof,” said WM Shantha.
A helicopter crew had to abort an initial rescue attempt because the downdraft from their rotors threatened to blow away the roof the group were perched on. They were later rescued by naval boats.
The cyclone made landfall on Wednesday, triggering record rainfall across the island. The flooding situation in low-lying areas worsened on Saturday, prompting authorities to issue evacuation orders for those living along the banks of the Kelani River, which flows through Colombo into the Indian Ocean.
The Kelani burst its banks on Friday evening, forcing hundreds of people to move to temporary shelters, the DMC said.
One woman, Kumari, who lives by the river in Malwana, east of Colombo, was rescued by boat and transported to safety with her children.
“I first heard about the flood warning on TV but we never expected the river to overflow so quickly. We just rushed out of the house without anything,” Kumari told Reuters.
In the rush, Kumari left behind her cat, which was later picked up by a navy boat crew.
Other residents chose to remain in the upper floors of partially submerged homes, protecting their belongings.
Rains have subsided in most parts of the country, including the capital, but parts of the island’s north have continued to experience showers due to the residual effects of the cyclone.
The DMC said earlier that the death toll had climbed with the recovery of more bodies in the worst-affected central region, where most victims were buried alive as mudslides hit this week.
Some regions had recorded 360mm of rain in the past 24 hours, the DMC said on Friday.
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 said. “I remember a flood in the 1990s when my house was under 7ft of water.”
Kalyani, 48, also from Kaduwela, said she was sheltering two families whose homes were flooded.
At least 3,000 homes have been damaged by mudslides and floods. In Anuradhapura district in the north, a Bell 212 helicopter airlifted a man who had climbed a coconut tree to escape rising waters.
Officials said India had rushed a planeload of supplies early on Saturday for the victims.
The Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, expressed his condolences over the loss of life in Sri Lanka and said New Delhi was ready to send more aid.
“We stand ready to provide more aid and assistance as the situation evolves,” he said on X.
DMC officials said they expected flood levels to be worse than in 2016, when 71 people were killed across Sri Lanka. This week’s weather-related toll is the highest since June last year.
Dozens of stranded tourists were evacuated to Colombo from the tea-growing central areas of the island on Friday.
The Sirasa TV network broadcast an appeal for help from a desperate woman. “We are six people, including a one-and-a-half-year-old child. If the water rises another five steps up the staircase, we will have nowhere to go,” she said by phone.
Sri Lanka is in its north-east monsoon season, but rainfall has intensified because of Cyclone Ditwah, the DMC said.
Sri Lanka depends on seasonal monsoon rains for irrigation and hydroelectricity, but experts have warned that the country faces more frequent floods owing to the climate crisis.
The worst flooding Sri Lanka has experienced since the turn of the century occurred in June 2003, when hundreds of people were killed.
