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LAST UPDATE | 6 Jun 2021
MONSOON RAINS TRIGGERED floods and mudslides in Sri Lanka killing at least 16 people and leaving more than a quarter of a million homeless, the Disaster Management Centre (DMC) has said.
Heavy downpours in ten out of the country’s 25 districts since Friday buried most of the victims alive, the DMC said.
In the central Kegalle district, a pet dog pointed rescuers to a location where four members of the same family were buried alive, officials said.
However, all four were found dead by the time they were pulled out with the help of troops.
Security forces were deployed in several districts to help evacuate marooned villagers.
The DMC said 270,000 people were driven out of flooded homes and were sheltering with friends or relatives, as well as inside state-run welfare centres.
The monsoon hits the island nation twice a year, bringing vital rain for irrigation as well as hydro-power generation, but also causing frequent loss of life and damage to property.
- © AFP 2021.
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That headline seems like it could be copied and pasted around this time every year
@John O’Regan: doesn’t make it any less tragic for the people effected…
@John O’Regan: same in Bangladesh every year.
. always the poorest isnt it. !
@Karl Mc Cauley: of course it is Karl, it’s just tragic that it happens every year and nothing seems can be done to prevent it or at least have an emergency plan in place to save the people that are at most risk.
As if they are not already suffering enough.
Rains certainly worse than the rains in good ol Ireland were fortunate of.
have your say