Cyclone Ditwah kills 69 in Sri Lanka, IMD issues red warning ahead of landfall on Sunday

Sri Lankan troops were racing to rescue hundreds of people marooned by rising floodwaters on Friday as weather-related deaths rose to 69, with another 34 people declared missing.

Helicopters and navy boats carried out multiple rescue operations, plucking residents from tree tops, roofs and villages cut off by floodwaters.

The Disaster Management Centre (DMC) said the toll had climbed with the recovery of more bodies in the worst affected central region, where most victims had been buried alive as mudslides hit this week.

Rain was falling across the island with some regions receiving 360 millimetres in the past 24 hours, the DMC said.

Heavy rainfall forecast for Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh

The IMD has issued red warnings for coastal southern India and forecast extremely heavy rainfall from Friday to Monday.

Tamil Nadu is expected to receive heavy rainfall between November 28 and December 1, with isolated extremely heavy rainfall over coastal areas between November 28 and November 30.

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In coastal Andhra Pradesh, Yanam and Rayalaseema, isolated heavy to very heavy rainfall is likely between November 29 and December 1.

Cyclone Ditwah is also expected to bring a gradual increase in wind speeds, according to B Amudha, Deputy Director General at the Regional Meteorological Centre, IMD.

“Wind speeds may be 60–80 kilometres per hour (kmph), gusting to 90 kmph in areas along the storm’s path. For the next two days, strong surface winds of 40–50 kmph may prevail over coastal Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Karaikal,” Amudha told The Times of India.

Cyclone Ditwah’s trail of destruction in Sri Lanka

Cyclone Ditwah has turned out to be Sri Lanka’s worst disaster since 2017, when flooding and landslides killed more than 200 people and displaced hundreds of thousands across the country.

Sri Lanka’s Disaster Management Centre said Ditwah has affected at least 12,000 families so far, damaging over 600 homes and displacing more than 3,600 people, according to The Times.