Over 74 000 affected, 11 000 evacuated due to flash floods in Sri Lanka
Image credit: Flash floods in Sri Lanka, December 2018
Heavy rains and strong winds affecting Sri Lanka over the past couple of days resulted in severe flash floods and evacuations in the country's north.
According to media reports, this severe weather event lasted for several days, affecting 74 793 people or 23 265 families.
Over 11 000 people were evacuated to safe locations as their homes were inundated due to continuous rains. The military and police were involved in rescue operations, ECHO reports.
The worst-affected districts were Mullaitivu, Killinochchi, Mannar, Vavuniya and Jaffna. No deaths or injuries were reported so far.
The Mullaithivu main road has been blocked due to the floods, the Government of Sri Lank said. In the Kilinochchi District, all the sluice gates of the Iranaimadhu Tank have already been opened, displacing a large number of families.
The Sri Lanka Air Force said a Bell-212 helicopter and Y12 aircrafts had been deployed on flights over Iranaimadhu and Mullaithivu areas to assess the flood situations.
Although floodwaters have now receded, people have been told to remain cautious as the Meteorology Department warned of more rains in the north, east and north central provinces and said heavy rainfall was expected in Central, Sabaragamuwa and Western provinces.
Media also reports that the government will provide an amount equivalent to EUR 50 to each affected family in the Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu District to compensate for the immediate damage caused by floods.
Teo Blašković founded The Watchers in 2011 and edited it until 2026, covering seismic and volcanic activity, extreme weather, space weather and near-Earth objects. Articles on this page are his archive.
Published in the last 24 hours
- NASA built the Opportunity rover to last 90 days on Mars, and Martian winds helped keep it alive for nearly 15 years by blowing dust off its solar panels, until a planet-wide dust storm in 2018 blocked sunlight and silenced the rover Epicenter
- In the winter of 1811–12, earthquakes near New Madrid, Missouri, shook so hard that witnesses saw the Mississippi River flow backward, and the shaking left a brand-new lake in Tennessee Epicenter
- On 28 August 1859 a solar storm shocked telegraph operators and threw sparks on other lines, and on 2 September Boston to Portland clerks unhooked their batteries and kept sending for more than two hours on the aurora's current alone. Epicenter
- In 2019, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library hired hundreds of goats to eat 13 acres of brush around it; months later the Easy Fire surrounded the library, and the fire break the goats left behind slowed the flames before they reached the building Epicenter
