{"id":75444,"date":"2025-12-02T09:01:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T00:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2025\/dec\/02\/we-were-all-very-scared-sri-lankans-relive-the-devastation-of-cyclone-ditwah"},"modified":"2025-12-02T17:21:24","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T08:21:24","slug":"we-have-to-rebuild-from-scratch-sri-lankans-relive-the-devastation-of-cyclone-ditwah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/?p=75444","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We have to rebuild from scratch\u2019: Sri Lankans relive the devastation of Cyclone Ditwah"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Many uncertain about the future after losing everything in the country\u2019s deadliest natural disaster for years<\/p>\n<p>When the rains began, Layani Rasika Niroshani was not worried. The 36-year-old mother of two was used to the heavy monsoon showers that drench <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/srilanka\">Sri Lanka<\/a>\u2019s hilly central region of Badulla every year. But as it kept pounding down without stopping, the family started to feel jittery.<\/p>\n<p>Some relocated to a relative\u2019s house, but her brother and his wife decided to stay behind to collect the valuables. As they were inside, a landslide hit the family home.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2025\/dec\/02\/we-were-all-very-scared-sri-lankans-relive-the-devastation-of-cyclone-ditwah\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Many uncertain about the future after losing everything in the country\u2019s deadliest natural disaster for yearsWhen the rains began, Layani Rasika Niroshani was not worried. The 36-year-old mother of two was used to the heavy monsoon showers that drench &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3231,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sns_share_botton_hide":"","vkExUnit_sns_title":"","_vk_print_noindex":"","sitemap_hide":"","_veu_custom_css":"","veu_display_promotion_alert":"","vkexunit_cta_each_option":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[455,313,61,674],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-extreme-weather","category-flooding","category-south-and-central-asia","category-sri-lanka"],"aioseo_notices":[],"veu_head_title_object":{"title":"","add_site_title":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3231"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=75444"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75444\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75464,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75444\/revisions\/75464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=75444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=75444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=75444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}