People and Events

Management changes at British School

Mark Hales, former deputy head of St. James Primary School in London has been recruited as Headmaster of the Junior School, whilst several expatriate staff have been recruited for both the senior as well as junior sections.

Are we ready ?

After a fair amount of damage has been wreaked, the best that is sometimes offered to them is temporary housing at places like the Sugathadasa Stadium and they then have to go home, sometimes to nothing but a patch of bare, wet land.

The Natural Disaster Management Centre of the Social Services Ministry set up two years ago, at present only manages to hand out food parcels and sometimes clothes or money in the event of any natural disaster. But things may change, once the Sri Lanka Disaster Counter Measures Act is passed through Parliament, giving legal backing to the department.

Blowing in the wind

By Ayesha R. Rafiq

For Upali Aturugiri, his main worry was the huge tree in front of his house. If the cyclone came their way, the tree could come crashing down, razing the house to the ground. Even if it were to hit from the other side, if uprooted, the roots of the tree would strike against the French doors, still damaging half the house.

A free-lance photographer, this was not the first cyclone he had experienced. The family huddled in the strongest part of the house, watching movies to keep themselves entertained. 'By about 9.45 p.m. everything was very quiet. We were waiting for the cyclone to do its worst and get it over with,' said Upali. And then at 10.00 p.m. just like promised, the winds came in full force.

Howling and tearing at anything in its way, Upali and his family watched as chimneys, signboards and branches of trees went crashing past. The winds raged on for two hours and then finally abated.

Just when everybody was breathing a sigh of relief, however, reports came that the winds could return in the early hours of the morning. 

The South of France spent a sleepless night, and the winds did indeed come back at 3 a.m. but this time subdued, as though the weather gods had been appeased and were now leaving the country with a last warning of their strength. The next morning, a walk outside the house showed that there was lot of work to do. "The tree was still standing, but its branches and leaves were all over. But we were all relieved that the damage was minimal and could be corrected. Even the five or six chimneys lying on the roads could be replaced," says Upali laughingly, but still not without a trace of relief.

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