Cyclone Ditwah reminds we are in the same boat
The devastation wrought by Cyclone Ditwah across Sri Lanka is not merely a tragic weather event; it is a stark indictment of its fragile infrastructure, patchy disaster communication, and long-neglected urban planning. Three days of torrential rain triggered by the cyclone caused one of the island’s worst floods in decades and exposed several weak links: breached embankments, choked drains, and sprawling informal settlements on riverbanks that turned it into a catastrophe. Early warnings were issued November 22 onwards through text alerts, press conferences, and evacuation notices. Yet, many citizens first learned of the danger when floodwaters reached their doorsteps. Power cuts prevented phone-charging, language barriers muted the messaging in Tamil-speaking areas, and unclear evacuation protocols sowed confusion. Declaring a public holiday and a state of emergency when the storm peaked stranded many citizens, amplifying the chaos.
Preparedness by Sri Lanka’s Disaster Management Centre fell far short of expectations. Meanwhile, India’s swift Operation Sagar Bandhu—deploying navy ships and IAF aircraft to deliver tonnes of relief material and evacuate over 2,000 Indians stranded in the island nation—earned gratitude on both sides of Palk Strait. Over 150 persons were rescued from surging floodwaters.
The December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami forced the littoral region to build a tsunami early warning system soon after. Two decades later, we still lack an equally robust, multilingual, hyper-local cyclone warning and response architecture. A promising US-India collaborative forecast model under the US’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and India’s earth sciences ministry must be fast-tracked and expanded to include Sri Lanka and other neighbouring countries.
Coastal cities from Chennai to Colombo share the same vulnerabilities: rampant urban development, concretised flood plains, and stormwater drains treated as garbage bins. Ditwah’s lesson is brutal but clear—given climate change, every cyclone season can bring a ‘once-in-a-century’ flood until we stop building our cities as if the sea and the sky will forever remain calm. We cannot prevent the next Ditwah, but can refuse to be this helpless again. Invest in resilient embankments, clear the drains before the rains, map every vulnerable settlement, and create a warning system that speaks every language and reaches the last mile before the lights go out. The region that once joined hands against tsunamis must now urgently come together to handle cyclones more effectively.