Torrential rains over 11 days have caused floods and landslides, killing 31 people and affecting nearly 4,000 across Sri Lanka.
A bus trapped in rising waters saw 23 passengers rescued; 14 people remain missing and several are injured.
A deepening weather depression is set to bring over 200 mm of rainfall, prompting a crisis meeting by President Dissanayake.
As the Sri Lanka struggles with one of its greatest weather-related catastrophes, torrential rains, floods, and landslides have killed 31 people and affected nearly 4000 in the just 11 days.
On Thursday, the Disaster Management Centre of Sri Lanka claimed that landslides had killed 18 people in the central hill areas alone.
In a terrifying incident, a passenger bus got trapped in rising floodwaters in Kumbukkana. Emergency teams managed to rescue twenty-three passengers successfully, Daily Mirror Online reported. Nearly 10 people have sustained injuries, while 14 persons are reported missing, Adaderana news portal reported.
President Anura Kumara Dissanayake had called a crisis meeting to assess the deteriorating situation in 17 of the 25 administrative districts.
According to the weather bureau, the island’s southeast periphery had developed a low-pressure situation, which had developed “into a depression and is centred 210 km southeast of Batticaloa. “It is very likely to move northwestwards and intensify further into a deep depression during the next 12 hours,” it added. Very heavy rainfalls above 200 mm are likely to hit several parts of the island, it said.
