Toll rises to 27 in Sri Lanka floods
By DPA, IANSFriday, January 14, 2011
COLOMBO - The toll in Sri Lanka’s floods reached 27 Friday, the national Disaster Management Centre (DMC) said in an online report as it issued a public appeal for relief assistance.
Local government officials have put the toll higher in the floods that have hit the east and northeast of the country over the last six days, saying Thursday it could be over 40.
Around one million people have had to leave their homes, with around 3,000 houses destroyed and more than 16,000 damaged, mostly in Batticaloa and Ampara districts in the east and Polonnaurwa and Anuaradhapura in the north, the DMC said.
The DMC launched an appeal for cash donations, basic foodstuffs and items such as mosquito nets, toiletries, clothes, cooking utensils and hurricane lamps, saying more than 360,000 people had taken refuge in camps set up for those displaced by the waters.
