OttawaOttawa’s Sri Lankan community is rallying to raise funds to support their homeland, which has been struck by a devastating cyclone. The death toll from cyclone Ditwah is over 300 people and risingListen to this articleEstimated 3 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.People wade through a submerged area of Colombo, Sri Lanka, following flooding on Sunday, Nov. 30, 2025. (Eranga Jayawardena/AP)Ottawa’s Sri Lankan community is rallying to support their homeland after it was struck by a devastating cyclone. Cyclone Ditwah caused torrential rains to fall on Sri Lanka in recent days, leading to landslides and flooding. The cyclone is thought to be one of the worst weather disasters to befall the Indian Ocean island nation in years, although with communications disrupted and roads cut, the full picture of devastation is not yet clear. Naradha Kodituwakku, a member of the Sri Lanka Canada Association of Ottawa, said the news that has emerged from has brought together different Sri Lankan groups in Canada to provide help.”The various community organizations got together. I had a meeting yesterday, and they said how can we help? So we create the GoFundMe,” he told CBC on Sunday. “There’s collaboration with the Muslim community, the Tamil community as well, just to get something going to help Sri Lanka.”There are about 1,000 Sri Lankan families in the capital, Kodituwakku estimated, with the online fundraiser aiming to collect $50,000 to help with the recovery efforts. “Cell phone towers are down, electricity is down, the roads are blocked,” he said. “And if you look at some of the pictures, it’s like landslide after landslide after landslide.”Some areas of the country had received up to 500 millimetres of rain in 24 hours, Kodituwakku said, comparing it to Ottawa’s monthly precipitation average of about 76 millimetres. “It’s catastrophic, just the amount of damage that has caused,” he said. “For us to see it in front of our eyes … that’s where we as a Sri Lanka community in Ottawa came together and said let’s try to help somehow.” Naradha Kodituwakku, a member of the Ottawa Sri Lankan community, said a relative back home had shared images with him of the landslides caused by Cyclone Ditwah. (Courtesy of Naradha Kodituwakku)Fahad Siyad is another member of the Sri Lankan community in Ottawa who has struggled to reach relatives back home.”One of the areas from where our family lives, the whole village is flooded,” he told CBC, saying that an estimated 800 people were believed to be missing. “Rescue operations are going on,” he said. “We’re unsure how many people are alive.”In an update on Sunday evening, the Sri Lankan Government Disaster Management Center said 334 people were confirmed dead. With more reported missing, the death toll is expected to rise. Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand have also faced large-scale devastation after a rare tropical storm formed in the Malacca Strait, fueling heavy rains and wind gusts for a week.ABOUT THE AUTHORCampbell MacDiarmid is a reporter with the CBC Ottawa bureauWith files from Reuters
Ottawa’s Sri Lankan community rallies to support cyclone-hit homeland
