Heavy rain, flood disrupts normal life in east

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 December 2004, 09:53 GMT]
Several villages in the three districts of the eastern province, Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Amparai are inundated with floodwater following incessant rain since Saturday. Several hundreds of families in the three districts residing in low-lying areas have been evacuated and given shelter in schools and other public buildings, social services sources said.

Social Services Department has already taken steps to provide cooked meals to those families evacuated from flood-stricken areas and now given shelter in public buildings. The Department has allocated about one million rupees to people affected by the rain and flood in the Batticaloa district Social service officers are now engaged in assessing the damages caused to families affected by the flood and to provide immediate relief, civil sources said.


Road under flood in Trincomalee

Transport services to several villages have come to a halt due to floodwater overflowing main roads. Traffic between Trincomalee and Vavuniya via Trincomalee-Anuradhapura road has come to a standstill as the three fourth of Horowopottana town and its suburbs are under floodwater, civil sources said.

Irrigation department sources said more than thirty minor tanks in the three districts are about to spill and necessary precautionary measures have been taken to avoid breach.

In some villages, students who are sitting for the GCE Ordinary Level Examination which commenced Monday (December 13) with great difficult reached their examination centres due to gale and rain. In some centres in the northeast proper lighting facilities had not been provided to students.

Due to rough sea, fishermen along the coastal villages have not gone for fishing since Saturday. Meteorological Department sources said a low level disturbance has formed in the south Bay of Bengal to the southeast coast of the island and predicted that under the influence of this system, there will be showers and fairly strong winds at times in the eastern, northern and north central provinces.