REAL DISASTER: MISSED EARLY WARNING ALERTS

Mounting public frustration targets the Sri Lankan government's response, from the lack of a relief-and-rescue mechanism to failure to declare a national emergency or issue timely disaster updates

- DILRUKSHI HANDUNNETTI

N November 28, Sundaram Thevapalan (36) and his family had to wade through Colombo’s flood waters to find shelter. They received no alerts of 200 mm of rainfall or flooding. The rising water itself served as a warning for those in Colombo’s low-lying areas.

There were no temple bells, government announcements, or community-based messages. “You read the crisis when water reached your doorstep,” he said.

As torrential rains lashed out, Cyclone Ditwah, the worst cyclone to hit the Indian Ocean island nation since 2003, left a trail of destruction. There were 334 deaths, 147,931 displaced, and 370 reported missing.

In the past 130 years, the island faced 16 cyclones, five of them severe, including those in 1978, 2000 and 2003. According to the 2024 Risk Information Index, 87 percent of the population is at medium or high climate risk. Between 2015 and 2022, 304 climate-related disasters were recorded, compared to 35 between 2008 and 2014. This calls for an effective, multi-pronged disaster response that activates upon early warnings.

While the country was overwhelmed by rescue demands, mounting public frustration focused on the state response, from a lack of a combined relief-and-rescue mechanism to failures to declare a national emergency and communicate in a timely manner.

If a November 12 warning by Athula Karunanayake, Director General of the Department of Meteorology, had been heeded, the nation could have been better prepared. In a television discussion, Karunanayake strongly predicted that a depression would develop in the Bay of Bengal by November 14, with the possibility of severe weather.