With social media, "we could have saved more lives"

Sri Lankan shopkeepers clear up their flood damaged premises in the suburb of Kaduwela in Colombo on May 22, 2016. Sri Lankan soldiers have pulled more bodies from landslides and distributed food and water to hundreds of thousands forced into shelters after major floods hit the island. Floodwaters were receding in the capital Colombo after the heaviest rains in 25 years pounded the island since last weekend, triggering landslides that have buried victims in tonnes of mud. / AFP PHOTO / LAKRUWAN WANNIARACHCHI

ARANAYAKE, Sri Lanka: For the first 48 hours after a huge landslide wiped out his hometown of Aranayake and buried 220 families, Prabath Wedage was on his mobile phone constantly. 

"I have not been off the phone for five minutes," said Wedage, who has been trying to coordinate consignments of relief supplies for 1,700 displaced people in 13 emergency shelters, including Rajagiri School, where he normally works.