{"id":86723,"date":"2025-12-01T18:00:20","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T22:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=86723"},"modified":"2025-12-01T22:37:38","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T02:37:38","slug":"86723","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=86723","title":{"rendered":"Cyclone Ditwah  Devastation : Death Toll Rises to  390 ; Over 15,000 Houses Destroyed.  More than 200 Roads  Remain Inaccessible; Bridges, Sections of Railway  Tracks and Power Lines Damaged. Many Countries Pledge Support to Sri Lanka for Recovery Measures."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><br \/>\nBy<\/p>\n<p>Meera Srinivasan<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Many countries have pledged support to Sri Lanka as it braces for a long recovery from the widespread devastation caused by Cyclone Ditwah over the last few days, claiming at least 390 lives.<\/p>\n<p>As the island faces the aftermath of one of its worst instances of flooding and landslides in years, India stepped in immediately, summoning its National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) to support the Sri Lankan military\u2019s rescue efforts, apart from dispatching emergency relief material.<\/p>\n<p>Although heavy rains have let up in many parts of the island, reports of severe waterlogging and inundation, and landslides in the badly-affected hill country persist.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Pakistan, too, brought in its military personnel and aid, even as many countries including China, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States pledged financial support.<\/p>\n<p>In his televised address to the nation on Sunday (November 30) evening, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake expressed confidence about mobilising \u201ca substantial amount of funds\u201d required to rebuild the country. \u201cWe are working very closely with friendly nations to secure their assistance,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Addressing private sector representatives on Sunday, Mr. Dissanayake pointed to the extensive damage to road networks, houses, farmlands, plantations, highways, bridges, government buildings, schools and electricity poles in the disaster, his office said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>The government has also begun discussions with the World Bank to prepare a detailed assessment of the damage across sectors and the financial requirement for reconstruction, and an assessment is expected in two weeks.<\/p>\n<p>According to an initial assessment of the UN\u2019s relief coordination office, over 15,000 homes have been destroyed, more than 200 roads remain inaccessible, several bridges damaged, and sections of the rail network and national power grid have been affected. Access to clean water has emerged a serious concern, with many areas reporting little or no supply.<\/p>\n<p>A 2023 report of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Sri Lanka and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), pointed out that \u201cnearly half of Sri Lanka\u2019s population, 48.8 %, lacked disaster preparedness, a key vulnerability factor aggravated by accelerating climate risks\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the political opposition staged a walkout in Parliament on Monday (December 1), accusing the government of preventing a debate on the impact of the disaster.<\/p>\n<p><em>Courtesy:The Hindu<\/em><\/p>\n<div id=\"tweetbutton86723\" class=\"tw_button\" style=\"float:right;margin-left:10px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdbsjeyaraj.com%2Fdbsj%2F%3Fp%3D86723&amp;text=Cyclone%20Ditwah%20%20Devastation%20%3A%20Death%20Toll%20Rises%20to%20%20390%20%3B%20Over%2015%2C000%20Houses%20Destroyed.%20%20More%20than%20200%20Roads%20...%20&amp;related=&amp;lang=en&amp;count=horizontal\" class=\"twitter-share-button\"  style=\"width:55px;height:22px;background:transparent url('https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-tweet-button\/tweetn.png') no-repeat  0 0;text-align:left;text-indent:-9999px;display:block;\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Meera Srinivasan Many countries have pledged support to Sri Lanka as it braces for a long recovery from the widespread devastation caused by Cyclone Ditwah over the last few days, claiming at least 390 lives. As the island faces the aftermath of one of its worst instances of flooding and landslides in years, India &#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=86723\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading &lsquo;Cyclone Ditwah  Devastation : Death Toll Rises to  390 ; Over 15,000 Houses Destroyed.  More than 200 Roads  Remain Inaccessible; Bridges, Sections of Railway  Tracks and Power Lines Damaged. Many Countries Pledge Support to Sri Lanka for Recovery Measures.&rsquo; &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86723"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=86723"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86726,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86723\/revisions\/86726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=86723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=86723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=86723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}