Sri Lanka floods: Toll rises to 159 as neighbourhoods vanish under mud

Sri Lanka staggered under the mounting devastation on Sunday as the death toll from Cyclone Ditwah rose to 159, with entire neighbourhoods smothered in mud and large swathes of the island battling relentless, suffocating floodwaters, the Al Jazeera reported.

Authorities warned that more rains loom on the horizon, even as rescue teams battle rising waters in parts of Colombo and search desperately for more than 200 missing people. Among them are five Navy personnel, last seen wading into surging currents to divert water from a naval sub-station in Chalai Lagoon — a mission from which they never returned.

The cyclone’s rampage has left the country’s landscape scarred and broken: over 20,000 homes flattened, 122,000 people pushed into state-run shelters, and nearly 833,000 more in urgent need of assistance.

In districts already infamous for their vulnerability, newly planted rice fields lie drowned, roads have vanished beneath landslides, and communication lines have simply gone silent.

According to Al Jazeera report, the whole neighbourhoods entombed in mud, each one deepening the sense of despair, while vast stretches of the region remain severed from the world, too isolated even to cry for help.

Colombo’s northern reaches are bracing for worse, as the Kelani River continues to swell with water pouring in from upstream rains. “The cyclone may have passed,” a DMC official informed Al Jazeera, “but the floods it unleashed are still rising”.

In a bid to steady the nation, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake declared a state of emergency, calling for international assistance. India responded first, dispatching relief supplies and helicopters for rescue missions, while Japan pledged support and sent an assessment team.

Yet even as the skies begin to clear, the devastation remains raw: a third of Sri Lanka is without electricity or running water, power lines lie crumpled, water plants are submerged, and internet connectivity has fractured.

Cyclone Ditwah has now carved its name into the island’s tragic history — the deadliest natural disaster since 2017, and a grim reminder of the ferocity with which nature can reclaim land and life.