SRI LANKA: Heavy monsoon rain causes flooding across several provinces, leading to a death toll of at least eleven

Record ID: 402295

  • Title: SRI LANKA: Heavy monsoon rain causes flooding across several provinces, leading to a death toll of at least eleven
  • Date: 8th February 2011
  • Summary: TRINCOMALEE, SRI LANKA (FEBRUARY 7, 2011) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF MAN WALKING IN HEAVY RAIN MAN ON BICYCLE ON FLOODED ROAD TRAFFIC ON FLOODED ROAD VARIOUS OF FLOODS IN TRINCOMALEE TOWN ARMY TRUCK DRIVES ALONG FLOODED ROAD VARIOUS OF TRAFFIC ON FLOODED ROAD FLOODED COUNTRYSIDE VARIOUS OF FLOODED HOUSES VARIOUS OF FLOOD-DAMAGED ROADS VARIOUS FLOOD SCE
  • Embargoed: 23rd February 2011 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka
  • Country: Sri Lanka
  • Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes,Weather
  • Reuters ID: LVAARTN9J65J5CU2QWKBB1QB8Q85
  • Story Text: Heavy rain has triggered flooding in Sri Lanka that has forced 320,000 people into temporary shelters and killed at least 11 people, according to official figures given on Sunday (February 6) Television pictures on Monday (February 7) showed tracts of town and countryside under water after flooding hit the Eastern, Northern and North Central provinces for the second time in less than a month.
    Officials said on Sunday the inundation was threatening up to 90 percent of the staple rice crop, heightening concern about supply shocks and inflation.
    Sri Lanka cultivates 570,000 hectares (1.4 million acres) of paddy twice a year, and another 100,000 hectares (250,000 acres) has been added in the former war zone in the Northern and Eastern provinces, the government says.
    Floods in January killed more than 40 people and forced as many as 325,000 from their homes and the Agriculture Ministry had said that at least 21 percent of the rice crop was destroyed.
    Sri Lanka has maintained low inflation since May 2009, when a three-decade war with Tamil Tiger separatists ended, mainly because of higher food supplies coming from the Northern and Eastern Provinces where fighting took place.
    Flooding and displacements are common in Sri Lanka, where a southern monsoon batters the island between May and September, and a north-eastern monsoon runs from December to February.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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