Colombo, Sri Lanka – Sundaram Muttupillai, 46, had been working on a tea estate in Thalawakelle in Sri Lanka’s central district of Nuwara Eliya since he turned 17.

However, a devastating cyclone last week, the worst to hit the Indian Ocean island in a century, has left him without work or a home.

Cyclone Ditwah left a huge trail of destruction across the island, killing at least 635 people and affecting more than two million people, or a 10th of the country’s population. Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake declared a state of emergency last week and named 22 of the island’s 25 districts as disaster zones.

Central Sri Lanka – the country’s tea and vegetable heartland – was the worst hit, with official data on Monday showing at least 471 deaths in the region, apart from the m

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