Heavy rains, floods expected

Chamikara WEERASINGHE

COLOMBO: The Disaster Managegement Centre of Sri Lanka yesterday warned that spells of heavy rains could be expected in the Northern and Southern regions within the next couple of days influenced by a forming "depression" in the Bay of Bengal.

The Centre's director Major Gen. Gamini Hettiarachchi said the Jaffna, Mulativu, Killinochchi , Vavuniya, Mannar, Batticaloe, Ampara and Trincomalee districts could experience floods if the depression forming in the low pressure areas over the Bay of Bengal intensifies.

Continuous rains and thundershowers are forecast for the region with the winds of Bay of Bengal in the Northeasterly regions influenced by the forming depression, he explained.

Hettiarachchi said, the Disaster Management Centre has taken steps the for necessary evacuation of people from areas most prone to floods in the districts by now as an emergency measure.

"People have been evacuated from several villages in the Batticaloa district as well," he said.

Asked if the Centre had dispatched life saving boats to these areas, he said they have sent but a limited number of boats, a number enough to handle initial flood stages.

'We have carried out the necessary drills, educated the public in villages on how they should act in an emergency. We are prepared to face any situation that could arise from floods," he said.

The Disaster management Centre has placed its co-coordinators in the North and East to deal with the situation at its first signs, he added.

He also said , the Ministry of Resettlement and Disaster Relief, UN Agencies , UNICEF and UNCHR , will be there to assist the flood victims with food and medicine and other non-food relief items.