Colombo: At least 14 people were killed
and over one million affected by fresh floods across Sri
Lanka, inundating homes, roads and agricultural land for the
second time within a month.
A total of 1053,499 have been affected due to floods
in several parts of the country, the Disaster Management
Centre said today.
A similar number of persons were affected and 300,000
left homeless in the flooding early last month which also
claimed at least 43 lives, prompting the United Nations to
make a global appeal to raise USD 51 million as an emergency
fund for flood victims.
The latest flooding has affected almost the same
areas devastated by the earlier flooding, displacing 237,000
people.
The displaced people have been accommodated at 653
temporarily camps set up in high lands in the flood affected
areas.
Schools in eastern province and part of the northern
province have been closed till Wednesday next week, officials
said.
Around 40 naval units and at least 7 military
helicopters have been deployed to assist flood victims in
northern and eastern province, areas where badly affected by
the floods this time.
Officials have asked the public to refrain from
visiting UNESCO heritage city of Anuradhapura as roads are
damaged and made inaccessible by floods.
PTI
