Tor­ren­tial mon­soon­al rain in south-west­ern Sri Lan­ka last Sun­day sparked a flood and land­slip dis­as­ter result­ing in the Radio Soci­ety of Sri Lan­ka (RSSL) receiv­ing an urgent call for help. 

RSSL Pres­i­dent, Jaliya Lokesh­wara 4S7JL got an emer­gency call seek­ing help with emer­gency com­mu­ni­ca­tions pro­vid­ed by radio amateurs. 

Emer­gency com­mu­ni­ca­tions were need­ed to link remote Kalawana, one of the worst hit areas and Rat­na­pu­ra. All com­mu­ni­ca­tions had failed due to heavy flood­ing, earth-slips, and bro­ken com­mu­ni­ca­tions networks. 

Roads were impass­able, with the only air res­cue pos­si­ble by the Sri Lan­ka Air Force heli­copters, and with­out com­mu­ni­ca­tions that was even more difficult. 

The RSSL in response had a plan with four radio ama­teurs ready to be air­lift­ed from Colom­bo to both loca­tions to form a com­mu­ni­ca­tions link. 

Jaliya 4S7JL and Nadi­ka 4S6NCH were the first ready to go, and were joined by Vic­tor 4S7VK and Dimuthu 4S7DZ. Vic­tor 4A7VK said: “We knew we could do it, we were self-suf­fi­cient and will­ing to rough it out.” 

“It was a hard task, but with­in 30 min­utes of land­ing the High Fre­quen­cy link was estab­lished. It had two days of tremen­dous coor­di­nat­ing res­cue flights, move­ment of patients from Kalawana hos­pi­tal to Rat­na­pu­ra, and food drops.” 

The emer­gency link remained until the restora­tion of mobile phone con­nec­tions and roads were cleared. Vic­tor 4S7VK in his report con­clud­ed: “We are hap­py we could win the day for sim­ple high fre­quen­cy radio.” 

The dis­as­ter after­math con­tin­ues with the deaths of 194 peo­ple and thou­sands of dis­placed survivors. 

An excel­lent report on all of the emer­gency com­mu­ni­ca­tions was been released by the media spokesman of the RSSL Vic­tor Goonetilleke 4S7VK, that can be read at: 

http://www.rssl.lk/rssl_response_to_flood_disaster_may_2017/

— Jim Lin­ton VK3PC, Chair­man IARU Region 3 Dis­as­ter Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Com­mit­tee with Jayu S. Bhide VU2JAU Nation­al Coor­di­na­tor for Dis­as­ter Com­mu­ni­ca­tion in India (ARSI), and Vic­tor Goonetilleke 4S7VK.