Four dead, several missing as Sri Lanka faces massive rains, floods
COLOMBO – Four persons, including two children, have died and several others remained missing while over 230,000 individuals were affected across Sri Lanka due to inclement weather following a massive rain system in the southwest Bay of Bengal, authorities said on Wednesday (27).
At least six Colombo-bound flights were diverted to other airports on Wednesday morning due to heavy rain – 75 mm in 24 hours ending at 8:00 a.m.– and high winds experienced in most parts of the island due to the Deep Depression (heavy rain-bearing system) over the southwest Bay of Bengal.
The Deep Depression is likely to move north-northwest wards closer to the east coast of Sri Lanka and intensify further into a cyclonic storm with up to 150 millimetres of rain and strong winds later in the day, the meteorological department said.
It said showers or thundershowers will occur at times in Northern, North-Central, Central, Western and North-Western Provinces and in Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Kegalle districts, with very heavy showers above 150 mm likely at some places
Army and navy troops were deployed to rescue victims and provide food and other essentials to those affected.
Local news portals said six flights scheduled to arrive at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) were diverted to other airports, including to Indian airports.
A SriLankan Airlines flight from Tokyo, an Emirates flight arriving from Malé, and IndiGo flight from Chennai, all destined for Colombo, were diverted to the Thiruvananthapuram International Airport while an Air Arabia flight from Sharjah was diverted to Kozhikode International Airport.
SriLankan flight from Malé and Etihad Airways flight from Abu Dhabi to Colombo, both were diverted to Mattala International Airport, local media reported.
Meanwhile, police said the bodies of two of the six students who were swept away in raging floods on Tuesday (26) in the eastern Ampara district, were found while efforts were on to trace others continued on Wednesday.
The six students, between 12-16 years, and the tractor operator were on their way back from school at Sammanthurai in the Ampara district when the farm tractor trolley they were travelling on was swept by the massive floods following the heavy rains in the area. Five other children and the tractor driver were rescued, police added.
Ahead of the forecast of the Deep Depression intensifying into a cyclonic storm, the island nation has been experiencing heavy downpours since Monday (25) leaving large areas inundated – flooded homes, fields and roads, everything.
Separately, a woman died when a brick wall collapsed on her in the mountainous region of Badulla in the central part of the country. Eight people were injured in various other weather-related incidents, the Disaster Management Centre said.
Train services were suspended in the mountain areas.
As of Wednesday, over 3,000 people had been moved to evacuation centres and nearly 600 homes were damaged,
Sri Lanka has been grappling with severe weather since May, mostly caused by heavy monsoon rains. In June, 16 people died due to floods and mudslides.
-Agencies/ENCL
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.