Sri Lanka was on high alert on Friday, with rail services suspended and government offices shut, as the death toll from floods and landslides caused by a cyclone reached 56.
The cyclone, Ditwah, made landfall early Friday morning on the island nation’s eastern coast and began churning northwest toward India, leaving destruction in its path. But most of the recorded deaths so far occurred over the preceding two days, as storms over the Bay of Bengal intensified with the cyclone’s approach.
The deadliest effects have been in Badulla in Sri Lanka’s central hills, where landslides caused by heavy rains have killed 19 people since Wednesday. In the same period, 14 people across the country have been injured and 21 others have been reported missing, the authorities said on Friday.
The cyclone is Sri Lanka’s deadliest natural disaster since 2017, when flooding and landslides killed over 200 people and displaced hundreds of thousands of others.
A forecast map issued early Friday by the country’s department of meteorology showed almost the entire island marked as red, which meant that heavy rainfall was expected. Strong winds of about 40 to 50 miles per hour were also expected over most of the island, the department said.
Sri Lanka’s Disaster Management Center said the cyclone had affected at least 12,000 families so far. More than 600 homes have been damaged and more than 3,600 people have been moved to emergency shelters, it said.
The destruction comes as Sri Lanka, home to over 23 million people, has been finding its footing again, three years after an economic collapse ushered in sweeping political change.
Mujib Mashal contributed reporting from New Delhi.
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