Over 350,000 people have been affected by flash floods in the Eastern and Central parts of Sri Lanka, officials said on Monday. The Disaster Management Center (DMC) said that flash floods caused by heavy rain which hit two provinces over the past few days had damaged several houses.
The worst affected was the Batticaloa district in the eastern part of the country where 4,782 people have been displaced. The DMC said that one person was killed in the area after drowning in gushing flood waters.
In all, the DMC said that 5,197 people had been displaced and 100,000 families affected following the bad weather. The latest displacement comes just as the country recovers from almost two months of heavy rain which saw floods and landslides in several parts of the country and further claimed the lives of some 42 people.
Almost a million people had been affected by the bad weather from November to early January, and people who have been displaced by the latest flood have been transferred to schools and other temporary shelters, the DMC said.