The death toll from floods and landslides caused by Cyclone Ditwah rose sharply to 334 on Sunday, Sri Lanka’s Disaster Management Centre (DMC) reported, with nearly 400 people still missing. More than 1.3 million people across the island have been affected by the record rains.
Officials said this is the worst natural disaster to hit Sri Lanka in two decades. The full extent of the damage in the central region is only becoming clear as relief workers clear roads blocked by fallen trees and mudslides.
President Anura Kumara Dissanayake declared a state of emergency to manage the crisis and promised to rebuild the nation with international support. “We are facing the largest and most challenging natural disaster in our history,” he said in a national address. “Certainly, we will build a better nation than what existed before.”
The disaster is the deadliest since the 2004 Asian tsunami, which killed around 31,000 people and left more than a million homeless.
Although the rain has subsided, low-lying areas in the capital remain flooded. Authorities are preparing for a major relief operation.
A Bell 212 helicopter carrying food for patients stranded at a hospital north of Colombo crashed into a river on Sunday evening, but all five crew members were taken to a nearby hospital. Another helicopter sent from India rescued 24 people, including a pregnant woman and a man in a wheelchair, in the central town of Kotmale, about 90 kilometres northeast of Colombo.
Pakistan is sending rescue teams, and Japan will send a team to assess immediate needs and provide assistance, the Sri Lankan Air Force said.
The air force also rescued two infants and a 10-year-old child from a hospital in the northern town of Chilaw, which was submerged on Saturday.
Authorities said floodwaters in the capital will take at least a day to recede, and dry weather is expected. Cyclone Ditwah moved north toward India on Saturday.
