Size matters when cyclones hit: ARE OUR EXPATRIATE COMMUNITIES DOING ANYTHING TO HELP?

The world's worst cyclone-hit countries are mainly in South and Southeast Asia Bangladesh, India, Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia. Now Sri Lanka and Thailand too, are in that sombre list.

- By Gamini Akmeemana

The Bhola Cyclone killed an estimated 300,000-500,000 people in Bangladesh back in 1970. India, Vietnam and the Philippines too, have suffered tremendously from cyclones. But all these countries are far more strong economically now than Sri Lanka. Bangladesh is much stronger than us after years of stagnation, and Vietnam is now an export hub. The Philippines, long considered a basket case, now exports semiconductors, electronic equipment, electrical machinery and transport equipment, copper, nickel and garments. Cyclones can affect all these industries, but these countries have a greater capacity to rebuild, and none of them are undergoing a preceding economic catastrophe as we do.

Cyclone Ditwah badly mauled our agriculture. In some ways, we were lucky. Tea represents roughly 11-18% of our total exports, about half of our total agricultural exports. Cyclone damage to tea estates would have been catastrophic. Paddy cultivation and other crops suffered heavily. Significant damage to coconut plantations would have been a nightmare as it's an essential ingredient in our cooking.

Cyclones can devastate countries big or small.

But size matters in this sense. Statistics show that almost 20% of the country (1.1 million hectares) was inundated. It's the landmass percentage which reveals our real vulnerability as a small island nation, not the number of hectares. We have such different landscapes packed together into 65, 610 sq km, creating a fascinating topologyfrom beaches to rainforests and a more salubrious climate starting from just 500 meters continuing up to 2500 meters, all this within a few hours driving time.