COMMUNITIES STRUGGLE BECAUSE WARNINGS WENT UNHEEDED

Reflecting on Cyclone Ditwah

- By Shreen Abdul Saroor

On the morning of November 30, 2025, a desperate message surfaced from Pattiyagama, Deltota, one of many remote hill-country communities devastated by Cyclone Ditwah.

Typed under a failing phone signal, it described isolation, fear, and despair: “There is no current here and the network is also bad. Roads are still blocked. No one has come yet. Food items cost very high. No one came to see if we are alive or dead. Relatives got caught in the flood and were buried at the spot. Not sure if even this message will go through. No bank facilities either. We can’t even draw water. Everything is broken. We are in an interior place. Government hasn't come inside yet.”

This cry captures the trauma unfolding in dozens of villages across the central highlands, where continuous rain triggered landslides, flash floods, and swollen rivers, leaving Sri Lanka confronting one of its gravest natural disasters in recent decades.

As the scale of the disaster became clearer, the country faced staggering human loss. By December 2, more than 400 people had been confirmed dead, with nearly 336 missing.