Sri Lankans in UAE mourn loss of loved ones as nation reels from deadly cyclone

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.