Hundreds displaced in Trincomalee floods

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 November 2008, 15:52 GMT]
Seventeen GS (village unit) areas in five Divisional Secretariat divisions in Trincomalee district have been badly affected due to torrential rains since Saturday. Social department officials are providing cooked meals as immediate relief to hundreds of families displaced from low lying area are being sheltered in public buildings. Trincomalee district till Monday morning recorded the highest rainfall in the north and east- 159 mm, Jaffna 56 mm and Vavuniyaa 26 mm, according to meteorological department sources.

DS divisions mostly affected include Trincomalee Town and Gravets, Ki'n'niya, Kuchchave'li, Moothoor, and Seruvila.

Internally displaced families from Moothoor east and Eechchilampattu divisions in 2006 military operation and being sheltered in welfare centres located in Ki'liveddi and Ma'nal-cheanai are also affected as their temporary huts have been flooded with rain water through leaky roofs.

The Moothoor east Tamil IDP families brought from welfare centres in Batticaloa district for resettlement and currently being sheltered in schools in Kaddaipa'richchaan and Cheanaiyoor schools are also undergoing immense difficulties due to the bad weather, civil society sources said.