Sri Lanka reels as floods trigger emergency, people suffering.
Sri Lanka mourns over 330 lives lost as floods devastate homes, families, and communities, leaving the nation struggling to recover.
Sri Lanka is facing an unimaginable ordeal as devastating floods and mudslides continue to ravage several regions of the country, pushing the death toll to more than 330 people. What began as heavy monsoon rains intensified rapidly into one of the worst natural disasters the island has seen in recent history, leaving families grieving, communities shattered, and entire villages wiped from the map.
The scale of the destruction is overwhelming. The Disaster Management Centre reports that more than 200 people remain missing, with families desperately searching for loved ones who vanished in the chaos. Over 20,000 homes have been destroyed, forcing nearly 108,000 people into temporary state-run shelters. Many of them left with nothing but the clothes they were wearing when the floods hit.
Electricity and water supplies have collapsed across nearly one-third of the country, deepening the crisis and complicating rescue efforts. President Anura Kumara Dissanayake declared a nationwide state of emergency, calling the catastrophe “the most challenging natural disaster in the country’s history.” Early evaluations suggest that the cost of reconstruction will be immense, far beyond anything Sri Lanka has faced in decades.
As rivers overflow and the ground remains unstable, more evacuation orders have been issued. The Kelani River—one of Sri Lanka’s most important waterways—continues rising at a dangerous pace, threatening low-lying communities and towns, some of which have already been submerged.
In the central region, one woman described a horrifying scene to BBC reporters. She said around 15 houses in her village were swallowed under a torrent of mud and boulders during the early hours of the morning. Not a single person from those homes survived.
Her voice broke as she recalled: “We heard the rumbling, and then everything went quiet. When the sun came up, there was nothing left… only mud and silence.”
Some of the highest death tolls have been reported in Kandy and Badulla, two regions known for their lush hillsides that, tragically, became prone to landslides under days of relentless rain. Many communities remain completely cut off, with blocked roads preventing aid workers, doctors, and rescuers from reaching those most in need.
In the village of Maspanna in Badulla, resident Saman Kumara shared the heartbreaking reality they are living through. We can’t leave, and no one can come in. All the roads are buried under landslides. There is no food, and our clean water is almost gone.”
His voice—tired, strained, yet filled with determination—echoes the desperation faced by thousands.
In the north-central district of Kurunegala, tragedy struck an elderly care home, where 11 residents drowned after the building flooded rapidly on Saturday afternoon. Police said the facility was inundated so quickly that staff could not evacuate the residents in time.
Heroic rescue efforts are unfolding across the country. One survivor recounted a harrowing experience to AFP, explaining how the Sri Lankan Navy saved a group of passengers trapped inside a building surrounded by swirling floodwaters.
“The water kept rising,” said WM Shantha. “They got us onto the roof of another building. Part of the roof collapsed while we were there—three women fell into the floodwater, but by some miracle, rescuers pulled them back up. We were very lucky.”
But not everyone has been as fortunate. Across multiple districts, families continue to wait in agony for updates about missing relatives, hoping for news but fearing the worst.
The government has issued an urgent appeal for international assistance, calling on global partners, humanitarian organizations, and Sri Lankans living overseas to help support thousands of affected families. With shelters overcrowded and resources dwindling, international aid is expected to play a crucial role in recovery operations.
The disaster was intensified by Cyclone Ditwah, which brushed Sri Lanka’s eastern coast on Friday before moving away. Although the cyclone did not make a direct landfall, its influence dramatically worsened rainfall patterns, triggering landslides and flash floods across multiple regions.
While Sri Lanka experiences monsoon seasons every year, extreme weather at this intensity is rare. Meteorologists say the country has not witnessed devastation of this scale in decades. For comparison, the worst flooding this century occurred in June 2003, when 254 people were killed and hundreds of thousands were displaced. Even that tragic event is now overshadowed by the enormity of the current disaster.
The crisis in Sri Lanka comes at a time when South East Asia as a whole is grappling with widespread flooding. Millions have been affected across Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand, where the combination of heavy rains and rising sea levels has caused rivers to spill over and towns to disappear under water.
As Sri Lanka fights through one of its darkest moments, the resilience of its people continues to shine—villagers helping each other climb to higher ground, rescuers risking their lives to pull survivors from rising waters, and communities opening temples and schools as makeshift shelters.
For now, however, countless families are left with heartbreaking losses, uncertain futures, and the daunting task of rebuilding lives swept away in minutes by nature’s fury.