This community in Sri Lanka's Kandy District is a mass of mud and loss.

The narrow, filthy streets in Gampola are filled with broken furniture, sodden toys and soiled mattresses. A torrent of floodwater ripped through this neighbourhood and many people had no time to escape.

Trying to reach their now destroyed homes is like wading through treacle - the mud knee-deep.

Many locals say they were not warned about the threat Cyclone Ditwah posed here before it struck last Friday , and weren't told to evacuate. They say they've received very little help since.

Resourceful neighbours were left to try to help rescue survivors. But some had to carry the bodies of the dead, too. Mohamed Fairoos was one of them.

Image: Fairoos Mohamed

"We took five bodies from here," he says, gesturing to

See Full Page