Tsunami victim found begging in Ratnapura after five years

Ratnapura District Corr

A woman who lost her husband and two sons during the tsunami at Peraliya in the southern coast, and believed dead for the last five years was found begging on the streets of Ratnapura identified by her kinsfolk yesterday.

The woman apparently out of her mind after facing the tragedy was believed to have died in the tsunami. One of her brothers, W.A. Premawardena who had come to Ratnapura had seen a beggar woman in the town resembling his missing sister.

He had gone back to his family at Beligalla, Beliatta in the Hambantota District and informed about the woman whom he believed was his sister. They had come to Ratnapura and informed police who brought her to the police station where her sister had identified her from a scar on her leg, Chief Headquarters Inspector Lalith Pussella said.

Her family members said her husband was a senior official of the District Secretariat and she would have lost her sanity after the tragedy. They thought that she too had perished in the tsunami. They took her back with them to their hometown yesterday.