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It’s not the best of times for the Government. It’s the worst. There will not be a rich nation in the foreseeable future, nor will there be a beautiful life for its citizens. The promises made and the grandiose plans still to be laid had been disposed of by the malevolent gods of fate.

The people had played the Grand Lotto with their ballots and lost their entire stakes.

Wave after wave of a cyclonic wind accompanied by a torrential rain hit landfall on the southern coast of the island on Thursday the 26th of last month. Though taken unaware by the Sri Lankan Government, there had been several warnings made on its impending arrival, probably towards the end of November.

Two international news agencies, the BBC and Al Jazeera, had carried reports on the 10th and 12th, respectively. The BBC issued a warning forecasting ‘potential flooding and landslides expected across Sri Lanka’, while Al Jazeera reported on a heavy rainfall system moving towards Sri Lanka.

Then on November 25, the BBC reported, ‘We are going to see some exceptionally heavy rains over the coming days, perhaps some 300, 400 or maybe even 500 millimetres of rain falling around Sri Lanka, where we can well see a tropical cyclone taking shape.’

Furthermore, on November 12, the Director General of Sri Lanka’s Met Department, Athula Karunanayake, appeared on the Ada Derana ‘Big Focus’ programme and spoke on the buildup of cyclonic activity over Lankan skies that may well develop and climax as a full-blown cyclonic storm towards the tail end of the month.

The Met Chief said, ‘I cannot say with certainty, but the possibility is certainly there,’ he said. The buildup will begin from the 14th onwards. There could be rain in the morning as well as a gloomy sky. When it starts to spin and collect moisture, the centre will gain speed. It could become a low depression, then a deep depression, and turn into a possible cyclone.’

These words were, indeed, prophetic. No one can stop a cyclonic storm nor prevent its catastrophic deluge of rain from falling where it will. But to worsen the tragedy that befell the Sri Lankan people, the serious warnings received of the approaching doomsday storm were left unheeded.

They were left unheeded even as the warnings issued before Tropical Storm Roanu struck the island in May 2016 – during President Sirisena’s regime – had gone unheeded. Over a hundred died, and many in the Opposition claimed that the death toll would have been far less had early warnings been heeded.

Among the most vociferous critics was JVP MP Anura Kumara, who castigated the then government for its gross negligence to utilise the latest technological innovations available and safeguard people’s lives and property by heeding early warnings to minimise damage.

He said, ‘Technology is developed in the world that by using such technology, one can predict which areas get the highest rainfall and which areas will be prone to floods. Enough and more data can be gathered using such technology, but till today we have failed to use this technology. In our country we are still looking up at the sky and saying it’s about to rain or, after it rains, saying the rainfall has been heavy.’

They had not, indeed, heeded the early warnings they had received, as he himself had failed to heed the warnings of the expected arrival of Cyclone Ditwah last month.

Contrast this pathetic state when the country was placed at the mercy of Cyclone Ditwah with how a prepared nation bravely met the oncoming Storm Burevi on 2nd December 2020, while a COVID pandemic raged in the country during Gotabaya’s presidency.

The instant Director General Athula Karunanayake of the Met Department – yes, the same Athula Karunanayake who had warned last month of an impending storm – issued a warning, ‘By this evening or night, the cyclone will make landfall.’ Disaster Management Units went into action and – as Al Jazeera reported in December 2020 – ‘evacuated 75,000 people from their homes on the East Coast that lay in the cyclone’s path’.

During the day a military official went on national TV to warn the people to brace themselves to meet the imminent storm. He outlined the steps being taken to protect lives and property – including removing fishermen’s boats – and setting up relief centres for refugees. All that could be done was being done, he assured the nation. The cyclone is likely to damage coastal buildings and power lines and unleash flash floods, the island’s disaster management centre said, advising those living near its path to stay indoors.

The people thus forewarned were forearmed to brave the cyclonic storm, scheduled to make an eastern landing at nightfall on 2nd December 2020.

As a result of the action taken before Storm Burevi arrived, the toll of death it left behind was only two, with six injured and one missing at sea. Though President Gotabaya had to flee the country due to a mass uprising against him two years later, there’s no doubt valuable lives were spared in the midst of a COVID storm.

In 2020 the UN Resident Coordinator in Lanka, Hanaa Singer-Hamdy, ‘praised the first responders and authorities for their bravery and preparedness during Cyclone Burevi. Her praise was directed at the systemic success of the disaster management operation and the high level of coordination that led to saving lives.’

And on the global front, media outlets and experts credited ‘the more accurate forecasting and the timely evacuation of several hundred thousand people in both Sri Lanka and India with keeping the death toll low, a fraction of the casualties seen in previous, less-prepared-for cyclones.’

Former President Ranil Wickremesinghe issued a statement on Tuesday in which he charged:

‘The National Disaster Management Plan was not activated on November 27, 2025, instead of November 28. The most crucial day for the operations was declared a public holiday. The process of last-minute dissemination of early warning messages set out in the plan was never activated.‘

‘The President failed to declare a state of emergency as per powers vested with him under the Disaster Management Act under the relevant provisions of law to mitigate the harm caused by the disaster. We hold that the executive action or inaction that infringes the fundamental rights of life of the citizens is actionable before the Supreme Courts as a constitutional tort.’

As the Daily FT reported on Friday, Ranil Wickremesinghe told party leaders,

• The Government’s handling of the disaster exposed systemic failures
• Not implemented the Disaster Management Act
• Abandoned the National Disaster Management Plan 2023–2030.

In the aftermath of a cyclonic rain that left Sri Lanka submerged in tears, the ebbing waters of the storm revealed the true extent of the devastation Cyclone Ditwah had left in its remorseless trail, as it relentlessly ploughed through Lanka like a knife through butter, laying everything on its path to waste.

Lanka had turned overnight into a wasteland. A land beyond the pale of physical human redemption.

The Herculean task of rebuilding this country will be an Olympian challenge on whomsoever the burden shall fall. Highfalutin talk alone will not breathe life into a comatose state.

A land where once mighty Gullivers trod, where talkative Lilliputians now hold sway, can a cyclone-hit Lanka rise from its debris like a phoenix from its ashes?

In the first full blush of promise when the JVP unexpectedly came to power in November last year, digging began in the middle of a public highway to unearth a trove of treasure presumed buried therein. Industries Minister Hadunnetti remarked, ‘Gems appear from the ground – these things come to pass when virtuous leaders come to power.’

He couldn’t have been more wrong. Not a single gem did spring from the ground to herald the birth of a new dawn.

This may explain who and what sowed the wind that the nation must now the whirlwind reap.

If the gods had any more tears left in their eyes to weep, they should weep for the people of Lanka whom they had forsaken long before the cyclone’s advent.

‘My cyclonic storm ordeal trapped in Ramboda Pass, by Shammil Perera PC   A group of Old Josephians made a rollicking start last Wednesday to attend an annual ‘class get-together’ at an old tea estate bungalow on Thursday. But the fun trip to re-live those schoolboy days of singing songs and telling bawdy jokes suddenly turned into five nights of horror when cyclonic winds and rains kept them hostage at Ramboda Pass with all escape avenues cut off and with their lives hanging in the balance. Amongst the Old Joes was renowned President’s Counsel Shammil Perera. Taking off his legal gown and shedding his pretentious solemn court air, the counsel who had got justice for those who had died or had been left maimed in Easter Sunday’s blast opened his heart to tell of his nightmarish mountain ordeal that brought him ‘nearer to God’. SHAMMIL PERERA PC: Spine blowing experience Shammil, speaking of his traumatic experience in the hills, an experience he’ll never forget in his life, said on his return: ‘As we had planned, we left for Ramboda Pass on Wednesday to be afresh on Thursday for the class get-together. But when we awoke on Thursday morning, we learnt that a cyclonic storm was brewing over Lankan skies.’ ‘What followed thereafter were the worst nights I’ve ever endured in my life. It was horrific. We had no lights, no electricity, no water, no telephone, no WhatsApp. Nothing at all. Except the stark isolation, one must feel when marooned alone at sea without a soul in sight to shout for help. I never felt so alone or so afraid in my life. It was a horrendous experience.’ ‘However, strangely enough.’ Shammil continued recounting his storm ordeal, ‘I felt the nearness of God, an indescribable divine presence comforting me in those desperate hours when I was bereft of hope. On the positive side, I realised that I, in my spiritual journey in life, my quest has always been to be as near as possible to God; I was tested and found in want. I bore the cross I have carried from birth and, in my isolation, I had only faith to depend on to see me through those nights of hell.’ Shammil then turned on how he and his friends escaped from the top of the mountain to the relative safety that lay below. ‘I was so moved,’ he said, ‘by the largesse of the spirit that these villagers had in abundance even in woe. They had lost everything – their meagre possessions, even their humble homes – but still their selfless generosity was not in want. They shared with us their roti, they shared with us our plight and, held out their hand of help to lead us down the mountain’s hazardous trail to the waiting aircraft to whisk us to the safety of our homes in Colombo’. ‘When we reached the bottom of the treacherous slope, I profusely thanked the villager who had assisted me in descending a particularly arduous and potentially perilous stretch of sixty steps, found on the six- or seven-km trail to ground zero.’ ‘I offered him money – not as a monetary remuneration but as a gift from an appreciative heart for bringing me down safely, in one piece – when I heard him say in reply, “When we have lost everything we had – tell me, mahaththaya – what’s the use of money for us anymore?”’ ‘His altruism, I could certainly well understand. It was born of an eastern ho, one long embedded in the heart and soul of the Sri Lankan peasant. But I still can’t fathom the financial logic of his reply when given money from a relieved, joyous heart in gratitude. Yet I distinctly feel I know that within that pearl of wisdom lies the profound answer to all that we ever need to know.’ The unvarnished reality of life, revealed in all its nakedness. The same providence that is there in the fall of a sparrow is also found present, perhaps, when disposing of the best-laid plans of Old Joes to save their precious lives. By God’s grace they arrived safe, unbeknownst to the role Providence had played to bring Shammil and his friends safely home.