The scale of destruction and displacement caused by Cyclone Ditwah has revealed critical weaknesses in the country’s disaster preparedness in terms of personal and household-level action.
Experts in the field agree that present levels of preparedness at the household level to deal with climate change events remains moderate but uneven.
According to Massey University School of Built Environment Senior Lecturer in Built Environment Dr. Chandana S.A. Siriwardana, the post-Ditwah landscape of human suffering suggests that many families were unable to translate early warnings into timely action.
“Cyclone Ditwah exposed the longstanding layers of systemic vulnerability that remain largely hidden beneath visible institutional capacity. As a result, preparedness at the household level continues to be structurally constrained and socially uneven,” he said.
He attributed this to decades of weak land use regulation, informal settlement growth, and poor enforcement of development controls, noting that large numbers of low-income households were concentrated in floodplains, landslide-prone slopes, and environmentally sensitive or reclaimed land.
“In such conditions, early warnings alone are often insufficient. Many families lack safe evacuation options, secure shelter alternatives, or the confidence to act early. The resulting gap between warnings and protective action significantly increases household-level risk during extreme events.”
Moreover, Dr. Siriwardana pointed to how community-level responses during Cyclone Ditwah relied heavily on neighbours, extended families, and religious institutions. “While this reflects strong social capital, it also reveals the limited reach of structured household emergency preparedness. Too often, preparedness exists as policy and plans rather than as routine, practised behaviour within households,” he stated.
Similarly, Sri Lanka Red Cross Society Manager – Preparedness and Response (Disaster Management) M.A.D.D. Chanaka noted: “Overall, while awareness is increasing and institutional support is improving, household and personal preparedness to cope with climate change impacts in Sri Lanka is still insufficient, highlighting the need for stronger community-based preparedness, household-level risk reduction measures, and improved access to information, resources, and social protection.”
Current limitations
Regardless of State-level mobilisation to prepare for disasters, an explicit household focus becomes a pressing need given the current landscape.
Dr. Siriwardana observed: “Post-Ditwah assessments indicate that Sri Lanka’s disaster risk reduction challenge is no longer primarily related to the issuance of early warnings. Rather, it lies in enabling households to interpret those warnings, trust them, and act early. Evidence from Sri Lanka consistently shows that without addressing behavioural barriers, trust deficits, and family-level constraints, warnings may be timely, but protective action remains delayed.”
Accordingly, families in high-risk areas need clarity on when evacuation is required, where to go, what travel mode to choose, which routes to use, and how to remain connected during emergencies. Dr. Siriwardana stressed that achieving this required regular grama niladhari division-level community drills, school-based preparedness programmes, and the engagement of trained community volunteers, all of which have been identified as gaps in current practice.
Although Sri Lanka has invested in early warning systems, warnings often fail to translate into timely action at ground level because weaknesses persist at the final stage of communication and decision making.
Dr. Siriwardana pointed to the last-mile gap, where warning messages frequently communicate the presence of a hazard but do not clearly specify what actions households should take, when they should take them, and who is expected to initiate evacuation. Accordingly, he explained that failure to provide sufficiently localised and actionable guidance created confusion about whether immediate evacuation was required or whether it was safer to wait, significantly delaying decision making at the household level.
Another significant impediment to proactively responding to early warnings is risk normalisation. With repeated exposure to floods and storms, many Sri Lankan households assume that future events will resemble past experiences. Thus, as Dr. Siriwardana explained, this familiarity reduces perceived urgency and encourages a wait-and-see approach.
Significantly, he noted: “Climate change has altered this risk landscape, producing events that exceed historical experience, making reliance on past coping strategies increasingly dangerous.”
Policy interventions
As climate-related hazards continue to grow in urgency, a policy-level intervention to ensure national disaster plans translate into household action appears crucial at this stage. Dr. Siriwardana believes that Sri Lanka already has the policy architecture required to translate national disaster plans into household action.
“At policy level, translating national disaster plans into household action requires operationalising what Sri Lanka has already articulated in its own frameworks and closing the gap between strategic intent and everyday practice,” he noted.
Dr. Siriwardana opined that while the Community Resilience Framework and the National Disaster Management Plan 2022–2030 were conceptually strong, their translation into routine household behaviour remained uneven. Accordingly, the challenge is a lack of mechanisms that make preparedness visible, measurable, and socially expected at family level.
“Policy must ringfence funding for preparedness, not only response. Local governments should be mandated and adequately resourced to conduct regular community drills, maintain and audit shelters, update evacuation signage, and engage households throughout the year.”
Dr. Siriwardana further noted that communication policy was another area where frameworks and practice must align more closely. “Policy should mandate standardised and action-oriented warning templates, using simple language and appropriate local languages, with clear behavioural triggers such as ‘evacuate now’ or ‘prepare to move within six hours.’”
All this demonstrates the available avenues to transform strategy into enforceable practice. “Improving family-level preparedness in Sri Lanka requires a shift from an institution-centred response model towards a household-centred preparedness approach. Without embedding preparedness as a routine and practised process at family and community level, institutional advances alone will remain insufficient to reduce disaster impacts under increasing climate risk,” Dr. Siriwardana added.
How to prepare
Accordingly, during disasters, emergency kits are essential to help families respond quickly, stay safe, and meet their basic needs until assistance becomes available.
Chanaka noted: “Preparing for disasters at a personal or household level mainly involves being informed, ready, and organised. Families should understand the common risks in their area and know what actions to take during an emergency. Households should also have a simple plan for communication and evacuation, ensuring all members know where to go and how to stay in contact.”
He pointed out that systematic preparedness at the household level for climate-related risks remained limited. “Most households do not have formal emergency plans, emergency supply kits, climate-resilient housing features, or financial buffers such as savings or insurance. Preparedness is particularly low among low-income, rural, coastal, estate, and informal settlement communities, where resources and access to information are constrained.
“Early warning systems and disaster response mechanisms exist at national and local levels, but last-mile communication and household-level action are not always consistent. As a result, timely evacuation and preparedness actions are not fully effective in all areas.”
According to Chanaka, a family or individual should prepare a go bag or emergency kit that can support them for at least 72 hours during a disaster or emergency. The kit should be kept in an easily accessible place and updated regularly.
“Every family’s emergency kit should contain necessities such as safe drinking water, ready-to-eat food, a first-aid kit, personal medications, and hygiene items. It should also include essential documents (or copies), some cash, a torch with batteries, a radio, a mobile phone charger or power bank, and basic tools for safety. Extra clothing, blankets, and items for infants, elderly persons, or people with special needs should also be included.”
Moreover, other basic skills to improve household resilience during disasters are crucial. These include first aid and CPR, fire safety and evacuation, emergency communication, basic survival skills (food, water, shelter), disaster awareness, stress management, and knowledge of how to use emergency tools and supplies.