Is this the new norm? Some say 'no', others say 'yes'

(Is this the new norm – rain, floods, landslides, thousands of displaced people and seemingly unmeasurable property damage? Can we attribute it to climate change? The purists say “no” and that is a view that has my sympathy, but if we strip away the understandable scientific reticence of absolutism, then “yes” this is evidence of what happens in a world with a disrupted climate system – Robert McLean.)

Showers upstream are keeping rivers
in Colombo high, making life
for locals both challenging and difficult.

Foreign aid has begun arriving in Sri Lanka, bringing help to half a million people who have been driven from their homes by heavy rains and deadly landslides, as floodwaters subsided slightly, officials said.

The Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry said an Indian Air Force plane carrying emergency supplies had arrived in Colombo while two Indian naval ships were also expected at the port in the capital.

Floodwater levels in parts of the capital subsided a little overnight on Saturday, disaster officials said, but not enough for anyone to move back to their homes on the banks of the Kelani river.

"Colombo did not receive any significant rain last night and the water levels of the Kelani went down slightly," Disaster Management Centre (DMC) spokesman Pradeep Kodippili said.

Read the ABC story - “Sri Lanka floods: Aid begins to reach thousands of people displaced by rain, landslides.”