President Ranil Wickremesinghe directed all the District Secretaries to coordinate the relief work with the help of the Disaster Management Centre for those affected by the prevailing bad weather conditions.

The President has also mentioned that all necessary provisions have been allocated through the Finance Ministry and has directed the officials to provide   all necessary facilities including food and medicine to the affected people. He has advised the officials to pay special attention to the sanitary facilities of the affected people.

The President further instructed the District Secretaries to work in coordination with all the Divisional Secretaries and officials of the line ministries to get the support of government officials and the armed forces in this relief programme.

The Meteorology Department predicted more rains today and tomorrow due to the influence of the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), the region where the Northern hemispheric wind and the Southern hemispheric winds converge, which is located near the country.

The Department predicted heavy showers above 100mm at some places in the Western, Sabaragamuwa and Central Provinces and in the Galle and Matara Districts.

“The public is requested to take adequate precautions to minimize damages caused by temporary localized strong winds and lightning during thundershowers,” the Department added.

It also predicted that the sea areas off the coast extending from Galle to Pottuvil via Matara and Hambantota would be rough at times. “Temporarily strong gusty winds and very rough seas can be expected during thundershowers,” the marine weather bulletin stated.

According to the Disaster Management Centre (DMC) Situation Report as at noon yesterday, three people have been confirmed dead (one in Trincomalee due to lightning and two in Kegalle due to an earth mound collapse),and another two persons were missing. A total of 61,467 people belonging to 15,404 families have been affected due to adverse weather prevailing forseveral days, including heavy rains, floods, strong winds, collapse of earth mounds and lightning. Floods were experienced in Kelaniya, Mahara, Katana, Ja-Ela, Dompe, Gampaha, Wattala, Biyagama, Miniwangoda, Attanagalla, Sri Jayawardhanapura Kotte, Thimbirigasyaya, Homagama, Kaduwela, Seethawaka,Rathnapura, Eheliyagoda, Elapatha, Kuruwita, and Warakapola.

The DMC said 1,927 people belonging to 439 families in the Gampaha and Colombo Districts have been provided shelter in 21 safe locations.About 193 houses were partially damaged and another five houses were fully damaged. Nine business establishments had also been damaged due to heavy rains.

The water levels of Kelani, Kalu, and Gin rivers and Attanagalu Oya, which reached the flood level, were falling as of yesterday. However, many areas still remained inundated and many roads were impassable for light vehicles as of yesterday noon. The Kaduwela Entrance of the Southern Expressway was also inundated.