Matara; which is situated in the Southern Province, Sri Lanka, experiences a tropical climate. But in November 2017, the Matara district experienced a devastating cyclone which had a great impact on many places. The hurricane style gale force winds accompanied by a rainstorm wrecked many areas in the City of Colombo. The cyclone was named Cyclone Ockhi and it reached Sri Lanka on the 30^th of November 2017. The weather conditions worsened at about 9 pm that day and it damaged several parts of the Western Province and the coastal areas. Fallen trees over power lines disrupted the electricity supply. As a result of that, there were power outages in many parts of the country.  Galle, Badulla, Gampana, Colombo, and Ambalangoda are also among some of the worst hit.

After the severe weather including strong winds and heavy rains, at least 13 people had died with 1 missing and 61 injured. Deaths occurred in Galle (8), Badulla (3), Matara (1) and Gampaha (1). According to the Disaster Management Centre of Sri Lanka, more than 106,000 people in 16 districts across the country had been affected. Almost 700 houses were destroyed and over 25,000 were damaged. The government has so far provided compensation of over 72 million rupees and promises to assist homeowners of damage residences to rebuild.

• 

• 

• 

•