Recovery after landslides and floods underway, as death toll rises to 465

As search operations continued in districts affected by landslides and floods, the Disaster Management Centre (DMC) today said the death toll has now increased to 465 missing while 366 still missing.

The death toll has been on the rise with the recovery of more bodies and search parties entering areas which were not accessible earlier.

The worst affected district was Kandy where 118 deaths have been reported and 171 are still missing.

The Nuwara Eliya district has reported 89 deaths with 73 missing while in the Badulla district 83 have been reported dead and 28 missing.

Among the other districts which have reported high deaths have been Matale 28, Puttalam 27 and Kegalle 22.

The search operations were backed by Indian and Pakistani teams while hundreds of villages too have been helping in the efforts.

Meanwhile, several private organisations, media institutions and voluntary organisations stepped up their relief efforts by distributing food and other items.

The District Secretary's offices too were engaged in providing food to those in the affected areas in welfare centres.

Irrigation Department officials said that the flood threat to Colombo has reduced as the water levels of the Kelani River have decreased.

However, some of the areas including Wellampitiya, Kolonnawa, Athurugiriya, Malabe, Gothatuwa and certain places in the Gampaha district were still underwater.

Meanwhile, the Government today announced that it was increasing the allowance paid to clean up their houses.  Accordingly, the proposed allowance of Rs 10,000 is to be increased to Rs 25,000 and will be paid without taking into consideration the ownership of the house.

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake today held a virtual meeting with the staff of the District Secretary's offices.