Cyclone Ditwah has left 829 dead and missing in Sri Lanka with hardest hit in areas in the central province of the hill country of the Indian Ocean Island, official data shows.
By December 03 evening 479 persons were confirmed dead and 350 were still listed as missing in Sri Lanka, with 1.61 million hit by floods and landslides, the island’s Disaster Management Centre data said.
In the more highly populated Kandy area in the central hills which includes Gampola, 118 were confirmed dead and 171 missing. In Nuwara Eliya also in the central province 89 were dead and 73 were missing. In Badulla 83 were dead and 28 were missing.
Rescue teams, backed by the military and teams from India are still digging through the mud of massive debris avalanches to recover victims.
About 44,556 houses were damaged with 1,289 houses fully destroyed.
By December 159 roads were opened for traffic and Sri Lanka’s Road Development Authority was working to restore 95 major road.
The RDA manages 12,000 kilometres of major (A and B grade) road in Sri Lanka. Information on smaller roads managed by local authorities is not available
By the end of December 03, 188,974 were displaced and living in temporary camps. In Sri Lanka temples, churches and state schools are used as shelters for people displace by natural disasters.
Cyclone Ditwah also inundated crops, damaged key roads and landslides ripped apart the rail tracks and fibre optic backbone in the hill country.
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