Rescuers in Sri Lanka were scrambling on Monday to clear roads and deliver aid to more than half a million people hit by a cyclone last week, as the death toll climbed to 355, with 366 missing, official figures showed.
Cyclone Ditwah, packing strong winds and heavy rains, brought the island nation’s worst floods in a decade when it struck on Friday, setting off landslides in the hilly central region.
Nearly a million people are impacted by heavy rains and floods that swept through large parts of the South Asian island nation, forcing nearly 200,000 people into 1,275 shelters, the Disaster Management Centre said in a statement.
Record rains lashed the country from last Thursday, causing multiple landslides in the hilly central region while overflowing rivers submerged entire towns nationwide.
Over 24,000 police, army and air force personnel are still trying to reach families stranded by floods, authorities said.
More than 120 people were airlifted to safety in helicopters by the air force after water breached the dam of the Mavil Aru Reservoir in the eastern part of the island. About another 2,000 people were moved to higher ground for safety, the military said in a statement.
Dozens of families are trapped in their homes by flood waters in the commercial capital of Colombo, which is one of the worst-affected places.
In the Colombo suburb of Kelaniya, as in many other parts of the country, cooked food is supplied by state agencies and donations, but many told Reuters they have yet to receive adequate help.
More than 17,000 people are living in shelters waiting for the flood waters to retreat from their homes.
“My sister and I were trapped on the upper floor of our home with our four children for two days. We slowly ran out of food. We only had biscuits and water to give them last night,” Sunethra Priyadarshani, 37, told Reuters.
The family was rescued by a boat that delivered lunch to them.
“We only have the clothes were are wearing. We will go stay at an aunt’s house for now. But we really need help.”
Flood waters are expected to gradually recede over the next three days, the irrigation department said, as the cyclone moves towards southern India.
Power, water and communications will be gradually restored over the next three days, authorities said after transmission lines and transformers were swept away by floods.
In Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, the death toll mounted to over 600 from floods and landslides caused by torrential rains across the three countries, officials said on Sunday, as relief efforts for tens of thousands of displaced people continued over the weekend.
People salvaged belongings from flooded homes along the banks of the Kelani river near Colombo, the capital, Reuters visuals showed.
Officials said train and flight services resumed after being were disrupted last week, although schools stayed closed.
In a statement, weather authorities said, “It (the storm) is very likely to move northwards, away from the island, and weaken further.”
It was the first time the entire country had been struck by such a natural disaster, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake said on Sunday, which he called the “largest and most challenging” in Sri Lanka’s history.
The cyclone also brought heavy rain to India’s southern state of Tamil Nadu over the weekend, where three people were killed in rain-related incidents, K.K.S.S.R. Ramachandran, the state’s minister for disaster management, said on Sunday.
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The storm, 50 km (30 miles) off the coast of Chennai, the state capital, has already weakened into a “deep depression” and is expected to weaken further over the next 12 hours, weather officials said on Monday.