Sri Lanka deploys more troops as flood toll climbs to 180
Thousands of Sri Lankan troops battled on Monday (May 29) to get relief supplies to over half a million people displaced by the island’s worst flooding for 14 years, which has killed at least 180 people. The military said a lull in torrential monsoon rains allowed it to deploy aircraft, boats and ground troops to evacuate people from flooded areas, deliver essentials and recover bodies. Just over 550,000 people have had to abandon their homes due to the heavy rains, which have brought flooding and landslides to large parts of the island’s southwest. Sri Lanka is regularly hit by flooding at the start of the annual monsoon. But carpenter J. H. Siripala, who lives in one of the areas worst hit, said he had never seen it this bad.
