COLOMBO: Sri Lanka appealed for volunteers Tuesday to help with a massive recovery operation in the wake of devastating flooding that left 183 dead and tens of thousands without clean drinking water.
State television broadcast calls for public assistance to clean drinking wells contaminated by the monsoon floods, the worst in 14 years after record rainfall in the island’s southwest.
The Disaster Management Center said nearly 600,000 people had been forced from their homes, with thousands suffering structural damage from flood inundation and landslides.
Water supply minister Rauf Hakeem said 40 percent of those affected did not have access to piped drinking water, and there was an urgent need to clean contaminated wells in flood-affected areas.
“Our workers have volunteered to join a major clean up,” the minister told reporters in Colombo, adding water distribution stations had also been flooded, disrupting the piped supply.
The military has deployed more troops to the thousands already involved in distributing food and other essentials to flood victims in the districts of Kalutara, Ratnapura, Galle and Matara.
The disaster center said weather in Sri Lanka was expected to improve Tuesday, with powerful Cyclone Mora moving away from the island toward Bangladesh.
There were scattered showers in many parts of Sri Lanka in the past 24 hours but flood waters were rapidly receding, officials said.
The official death toll was at 183, with another 110 people were listed as missing as of Tuesday morning.
In May 2003, 250 people were killed and 10,000 homes destroyed after a similarly powerful monsoon.
Sri Lanka has sought international assistance, with India sending two naval ships laden with supplies over the weekend. A third ship was expected later Tuesday, officials said.
The United Nations said it would donate water containers, water purification tablets and tarpaulins while the World Health Organization will support medical teams in affected areas.
Japan had promised portable generators and a team of experts to help with relief work.
Sri Lanka appeals for help as floods cripple water supply
Sri Lanka appeals for help as floods cripple water supply
Protesters try to attack driver after truck speeds through anti-Iran demonstration in Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES: Los Angeles police responded Sunday after somebody drove a U-Haul box truck down a street crowded with marchers demonstrating in support of the Iranian people, causing protesters to scramble out of the way and then run after the speeding vehicle to try to attack the driver.
The U-Haul truck, with its side mirrors shattered, was stopped several blocks away and surrounded by police cars. ABC7 news helicopter footage showed officers keeping the crowd at bay as demonstrators swarmed the truck, throwing punches at the driver and thrusting flagpoles through the driver’s side window.
The police department confirmed its officers were on the scene but didn’t immediately say if anyone was arrested.
Two people were evaluated by paramedics and both declined treatment, the Los Angeles Fire Department said.
Several hundred people had gathered Sunday afternoon in the Westwood neighborhood to protest against the Iranian theocracy. The LA police department eventually issued a dispersal order, and by 5 p.m. only about a hundred protesters were still at the scene, ABC7 reported.
Activists say a crackdown on nationwide protests in Iran has killed more than 530 people. Protesters flooded the streets in Iran’s capital of Tehran and its second-largest city again Sunday.
