Sri Lankan flood-hit families left with nothing, Red Cross says
LONDON- Floods in Sri Lanka which have forced more than 350,000 people from their homes have left some families with nothing, the Red Cross said on Wednesday as it launched an emergency appeal to deliver relief to tens of thousands of people in the country.
Last week's floods, considered the worst natural disaster in the Indian Ocean region since a 2004 tsunami, destroyed more than 125,000 houses and killed at least 92 people, with a further 109 feared trapped beneath landslides.
"This disaster hit families living in both rural and urban areas," Igor Dmitryuk, head of office at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), Sri Lanka, said in a statement.
