Sri Lanka death toll from floods and landslides reaches 123 | Sri Lanka

Torrential rains and floods triggered by Cyclone Ditwah have killed 123 people across Sri Lanka so far, with another 130 still missing, the Disaster Management Centre (DCM) said on Saturday.

Director general Sampath Kotuwegoda said relief operations were underway with 43,995 people moved to state-run welfare centres after their homes were destroyed in the week-long heavy rains.

The weather system was moving away from the island towards neighbouring India but it had already left massive destruction, the DMC said.

“Relief operations with the help of the armed forces are under way,” Kotuwegoda told reporters in Colombo.

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 into the Indian Ocean from Colombo.

The Kelani burst its banks on Friday evening, forcing hundreds of people to move to temporary shelters, the DMC said.

Rains had subsided in most parts of the country, including the capital, but parts of the island’s north were experiencing showers due to the residual effects of Cyclone Ditwah.

The government has deployed the armed forces to bolster rescue and relief operations across the country, with military helicopters and boats used to evacuate marooned residents and pluck them from treetops, roofs and villages.

The DMC said earlier that the toll had climbed with the recovery of more bodies in the worst-affected central region, where most victims had been buried alive as mudslides hit this week.

Some regions had received 360mm 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 7 feet of water.”

Kalyani, 48, also from Kaduwela, said she was sheltering two families whose homes were flooded.

At least 3,000 homes were damaged in mudslides and floods, and more than 18,000 people have been moved to temporary shelters. 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, when 26 people were killed after heavy rains.

Dozens of stranded tourists were evacuated to Colombo from the tea-growing central areas 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 254 people were killed.