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Floody hell hits them again
They were living the tragedy all over again. S. Symond (64), a farmer and his wife, from Morawaka lost everything in the floods of 1947 and on May 17, this year, they lost everything again, as eight-foot high flood waters destroyed their wattle and daub house.

As they tried to pick up the bits and pieces of their shattered home and livelihood they couldn't help but draw comparisons with the floods of '47. "In 1947 the floods did not spare our humble home or my father's cultivation.

“This time too the floods destroyed the cultivation and left just bits and pieces of what was once our home," Symond lamented. But this time they are adamant to rebuild their little home and are picking up the sticks to put them together again. "We have to restart our lives from the beginning. It will take a long time and we need some kind of support," Symond's wife said.

Ten days of heavy rain and the 1947 deluge
Fifty six years ago, when euphoria filled the air with Independence just a few months away, disaster struck three provinces of the country. Never before had the colonial Ceylon seen a natural disaster of such proportions as ten days of heavy rains caused rivers in the Central, Sabaragamuwa and Western porvinces to overflow.

Water levels rose to more than 12 feet in the rivers Kelani, Mahaweli and Kaluganga, flooding villages and towns and severing communications and transport links while hundreds of thousands of people were displaced. Hundreds of people were said to have died, though casualty figures were vague as they were hardly documented. However, the extent of damage at the time had been colossal.

Ratnapura, like today, was the worst affected, sinking in an ocean of rainwater. It had seen many a flood -- in 1930, 1932 and 1933 in particular. But the 1947 floods were reported to be the worst. Water levels in the Mahaweli caused Gelioya, a tributary, to overflow and gobble up villages between Peradeniya and Gampola with the railway line also coming under several feet of water.

Three days of heavy showers raised the water level in the Kelaniya river to 13 feet, much higher than that of the 1930 floods. Parts of Colombo, Peliyagoda and Wattala were under 10 feet of water.

In the Southern province, about 200 houses were destroyed when the water levels in the Ginthota Heenganga rose. Kandy, Matale and Hatton too were severely affected with several thousands displaced.

Landslides were reported from Hatton, Kotmale and Nuwara Eliya. More than 20 people had died in a landslide in Kotmale. In Gatambe, at least 300 people lost houses due to landslides which cut off transport links to the Central Province from other provinces for several days.

Gone with the current
Gayan Jayalath and his younger brother Nadun, students at Rajapaksa Maha Vidyalaya in Deniyaya along with their father were hurriedly packing their personal belongings in the face of rising flood waters, when tragedy struck.

They had already taken their mother and other family members to a safe place and promised to return soon after packing some belongings.The two boys had told their mother that they were keen on packing some of their school books. But just as the trio were stepping out a strong current had swept them away along with their humble home leaving no trace of what was once a happy home.

Digging for savings
Sunil was desperately digging the ground near his demolished furniture house, looking for 500,000 rupees and some gold items. There was nothing left of the three storied furniture shop cum house which had been flattened by a landslide in Deniyaya.

The desperate businessman was trying to salvage the money and valuables that he had hidden in a pillow as he had nothing left and was heavily in debt to two banks.
Sunil said he and his staff narrowly escaped death as the building had come crashing down a few minutes after they had vacated the place.

Sunil charged that the landslide had occurred because of a tea factory that had been built at the base of the mountain. He said the owner of the tea factory was a supporter of a powerful politician of the area and his complaints regarding the ill planned construction had gone unheeded.

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