Sri Lankans living in the UAE have been left shaken by grim scenes of death and destruction back home, where rescuers finally reached villages cut off by landslides days after a cyclone battered the island nation.
The nation is mourning more than 480 killed and at least 340 missing, in what Sri Lanka’s President Anura Dissanayake has described as the "most challenging natural disaster" in the country’s history.
Volunteers have told of families wiped out and homes flattened.
Sri Lankans living in the Emirates, some of whom had travelled home during the UAE National Day holidays, have formed volunteer groups sending food, water, clothes to remote areas in desperate need.
“There are human bodies all around, wild animals also floating in the water and so many houses are just gone in landslides,” Dubai resident Jeyaraj Baskaran, 33, told The National from his home in Kandy, one of the hardest-hit districts.
“In some areas, when people find bodies, they are burying them immediately because you can’t wait any longer.
"Even now there are warnings to evacuate because there is still danger of landslides in hilly areas. People are crying because they can’t trace their loved ones, they have lost everything. My friend’s mother went out to buy something and she is still missing.”
Sri Lanka is dealing with one of its worst flood disasters in two decades, with more than 1.8 million people affected and 180,000 sheltering in relief centres. Mr Dissanayake has declared a state of emergency and spoken about the enormous undertaking of “the most difficult rescue operation in our nation’s history”.
The UAE has sent relief teams and aircraft with aid supplies. India has sent rescue teams and helicopters, and set up temporary bridges to enable evacuations, as the race continues to find survivors.
Enormous damage
The infrastructure damage is immense - only 478 kilometres of Sri Lanka’s 1,593-kilometre railway network is usable. Across the country, 483 dams, 1,936 canals and 55,000 hectares of farmland have been destroyed. The government estimates the damage runs into billions of dollars.
The disaster is part of catastrophic regional flooding that has killed more than 1,500 people across Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Thailand.
Mr Baskaran, who works with a UAE-based financial technology company, reached Colombo on November 28, the day Cyclone Ditwah made landfall. Floods left the roads impassable and he could only leave the airport two days later taking eight hours to reach his family home in Kandy, normally a two-hour journey.
His family is grateful to be among the lucky ones who live in a well-developed section of Kandy city where water and electricity was disrupted for a few days. They have since been part of community relief efforts sending supplies to surrounding villages.
“I saw many landslides blocking narrow hilly roads, some villages are just gone,” he said. “The hills have collapsed, in many places the hill has capsized below the ground. You can see rail tracks but nothing, no ground underneath. It will take years to rebuild. We can only work, pray and support each other.”
Families wiped out
Survivors have taken refuge in temples, mosques, churches and schools in nearby towns. It took days for families to connect with loved ones as the storm cut off electricity.
More than 80 people have died in Nuwara Eliya, one of the largest tea plantation districts in central Sri Lanka. Relatives completed the last rites over the past few days as rescue teams found piles of bodies covered in mud and debris swept away by the cyclone’s fury.
Fr Roy Nayagam, chaplain and spiritual director of the Sri Lankan community in UAE and Oman, was parish priest of Ragala, a small town in the Nuwara Eliya district. He is grieving and dealing with heartbreak in a community that was home before he moved to a Catholic church in Emirates.
“People are still searching for family, they are finding it difficult to dig and unearth the bodies,” said Fr Nayagam. “We are speechless, we don’t know what to tell people who are mourning. It’s very painful to see the lives lost. Emotionally it’s a very difficult time.”
The tragedy is personal as he lost a close aide Nickolas Raj, a young parish member, who was swept away along with his wife and father in flash floods that levelled their home. Their two-year-old daughter was found alive in the floodwaters and is being cared for by relatives.
“Nickolas drove me to the airport last month when I went back for a visit, he was so involved with the church. Now his child is an orphan and I can only send condolences from far away,” Fr Nayagam said. “We can only assure people of our prayers, encourage them to help each other. Hope is the only word we can use to rebuild.”
International aid
Sri Lanka has withstood turmoil over the past years with an economic crisis that caused food, medicine and fuel shortages.
Alexi Gunasekera, Sri Lanka’s consul general in Dubai, reiterated his appeal for long-term aid from businesses to rebuild and urged tourists not to cancel travel plans.
“We need the help of the international donor community to rebuild,” he said.
“Only 30 per cent of our railways remain and this will affect transportation and tourism. We are thankful for support from the UAE, India, Japan and many countries that have sent us financial and material aid.
"The damage is extensive but the coastal area is still open so we are appealing to tourists not to cancel plans and to support the country. If tourists cancel, the situation in the country will worsen further because tourism is a livelihood. Our message is that we will overcome this.”
For the Sajjas family, the floods have doubled their challenges. Aishvariya Sajjas, 21, moved to Sri Lanka from Dubai earlier this year with her mother and younger sister after the death of her father last year.
The flood waters entered an uncle’s house in Colombo they were staying in and the family has moved to live with another relative.
“When the water level was rising, it was like a nightmare. Once the water came up to hip-level, we had to leave,” said Ms Sajjas, who was born in Dubai and is going to school in Sri Lanka. “We tried to save our belongings, placing bags on beds and chairs.”
She is helping clean up her uncle’s home as flood water recedes and will soon join the larger volunteer drive.
“Most furniture, beds, utensils, cupboards are damaged,” she said. “There is dirt and mud everywhere. We will need clothes, bags, books. But we have hope, we are alive and people are helping. We hope more help will reach people more affected than us.”
