When mountains rolled and rivers burst

By Maneshka Borham

The floods and landslides triggered by the prevailing extreme weather conditions have battered Sri Lanka for a week now. With 63 deaths and 425,601 people adversely affected, including over 250,000 displaced, the country is experiencing one of the worst natural disasters in history.

Some 132 people still remain missing due to landslides while 354 dwellings have been completely destroyed. Another 3326 houses have reportedly been partially damaged landslides leaving 319195 people displaced.

The landslide in Aranayaka affecting the villages of Siripura, Pallebage and Elingipitiya was the worst hit area. According to the Disaster Management Center it left 16 dead with 128 missing up to date. Landslides also occurred in Bulathkohupitiya, Kadugannawa and Dehiowita.. The Bulathkohupitiya landslide left 14 dead and two missing while three bodies were recovered from the Kadugannawa landslide site leaving three still missing. Three people continue to be missing from Dehiowita.

In Thabbowa Number 1 village 220 from 68 families were trapped and required special rescue teams of the Sri Lanka Forces to be deployed to rescue them.

A freak accident saw the loss of two young children aged 16 and 9 drown attempting to play in the flood waters, floating on a piece of regifoam.

After many areas faced death and destruction the first sign of possible landslide warning was issued by the National Building Research Organization (NBRO) on 15 May to the Badulla and Moneragala districts, followed by Kandy, Nuwara Eliya, Matale, Ratnapura and Kegalle. High winds experienced by the island too caused chaos with over 60 houses in Nalloruwa and Panadura and 14 houses in Laidbrooke Estate, Nuwara Eliya being damaged. Many roads in Colombo were inundated and the uprooting of large trees caused travel chaos in the city.

Rivers and reservoirs were bursting at their seams prompting grave concern for those living in low lying areas. Several sluice gates were opened with the Department of Irrigation requesting the public living in low lying areas in the vicinity to be cautious.

Traffic was disrupted in several areas and a bridge near the 21 Kilometer post on the Buttala - Kataragama road heavily damaged. A thick fog covering the western slopes of the Central hills was a cause for concern.

The outer circular highway was affected by the raging waters of the Kelani river as it reached seven meters forcing the Kaduwela and Biyagama entrance to be closed barring motorists from entering or exiting from that point.

Travel disrupted

The weather inconvenienced air travellers with three flights scheduled to land at the Bandaranaike International Airport being diverted to the Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport and the Cochin International Airport in India. Domestic flights from Ratmalana Airport to Palali were grounded temporarily.

Train commuters were not spared the chaos either with train services along the northern line disrupted.

Power outages were experienced in several areas. According to the Chairman of the Ceylon Electricity Board Anura Wijepala restoring electricity to Kegalle, Ruwanwella, Aranayaka, Bulathkohupitiya will take more time as many of the areas remain inaccessible to the CEB restoration teams.

“Special teams have now been deployed to mitigate and restore power to the areas” he said.

Many schools were declared closed in many provinces. On May 19 the Ministry of Education followed suit in declaring all schools of the island to be closed on Friday (May 20) due to the inclement weather.

The bad weather also prompted the Department of Wildlife to close Wilpattu National Park till May 25.

Director, Meteorology Department, S. Premalal is positive that the extreme weather conditions caused by the depression and the subsequent cyclone will ease during the weekend. “The depression now located around 1000 Kilometers from Kankesanthurai is closer to Vishakhapatnam” he said.

“Thereafter we anticipate the weather patterns to return to normal and Sri Lanka to experience the regular inter monsoon rains” he said.