Cyclone Ditwah Relief Program - Dec 2025

Cyclone Ditwah swept across Sri Lanka with destructive force, affecting more than 300,000 people across coastal and inland districts. The storm’s powerful winds and heavy rain destroyed or damaged over 45,000 homes, while storm surges wiped out fishing boats, small shops, and entire stretches of shoreline. Inland flooding submerged villages, washed out major roads, and ruined thousands of acres of farmland, leaving families without food or clean water for days. Landslides in the hill country forced emergency evacuations and buried several homes, adding to the chaos. Early estimates put the total economic loss at over 40 billion LKR (roughly $120 million USD), including damage to infrastructure, agriculture, housing, and public services. The scale of devastation showed how quickly a single storm can disrupt daily life and strain the country’s emergency-response systems. 

The evacuation during Cyclone Ditwah failed mainly because warnings didn’t reach people in time and the infrastructure wasn’t strong enough to handle a fast, organized response. Many coastal and rural communities rely on outdated communication systems, so families didn’t realize how serious the storm was until the water was already rising. Roads that were supposed to serve as evacuation routes were quickly blocked by fallen trees, flooding, and landslides, leaving emergency teams unable to reach the hardest-hit areas. Some families hesitated to leave out of fear of losing their belongings, while others had no transportation at all. Relief shelters filled up early, creating confusion about where people should go. Altogether, slow communication, limited resources, unsafe roads, and public hesitation made the evacuation far less effective than it needed to be. 

In progress

Total funds collected: $1,304 

Our team has identified a few families we may be able to support. 

Family 1 

One family runs a home-based sewing business that was severely affected by recent floods, which damaged their sewing machines and disrupted their ability to work. They need help to restart the business and replace essential equipment and materials. The Sri Lankan government has also stepped in to provide support, and we plan to contribute alongside those efforts. 

Family 2

Family that recently lost their small milk production business. They relied on a few cows for daily income, milking them the traditional way and selling the milk locally to support their household. After their livelihood was disrupted, they are now working to rebuild from the ground up and need support to restart their milk production and regain a stable source of income.