Two British women stranded by landslides in Sri Lanka’s tea mountains are running out of food and water, the daughter of one has said, as the death toll from Cyclone Ditwah reached 465. Melanie Watters, 54, and Janine Reid, 55, both from London, have been trapped in the Pussellawa area since Thursday.
Their car became stuck in a ditch and was at risk of being washed away as a nearby bus was sent over a cliff-edge. The women and their driver had to stay in the vehicle overnight before finding shelter at a tea plantation. Katie Beeching, Watters’ daughter, said they are now low on supplies and roads remain impassable.
Beeching, who is nine months pregnant, said she made repeated calls to the Foreign Office but was told there was no plan to evacuate the women. “I said: ‘This is your job.’ They said: ‘It isn’t our responsibility.’” She warned the situation was getting worse, with weather forecast to deteriorate further.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has been approached for comment. In contrast, India evacuated more than 330 of its stranded nationals from Sri Lanka on Monday using helicopters from aircraft carrier INS Vikrant and Indian Air Force choppers.
Sri Lanka’s President Anura Kumara Dissanayake described Cyclone Ditwah as the “largest and most challenging natural disaster in our history”. Beeching said her mother and friend, who were due to return to the UK on Wednesday, can hear helicopters overhead but they are reportedly being used for body retrieval.
