Sri Lanka, Dec. 9 -- Cyclone Ditwah did not simply pass over Sri Lanka, it carved a wound across the island that will take years to heal. New geospatial analysis from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), released on Tuesday (9), reveals the true scale of the catastrophe: nearly one-fifth of the country inundated, 1.1 million hectares flooded, and 2.3 million people exposed to life-threatening water levels. Entire districts vanished under swirling brown floodwaters. Roads, bridges, and railway lines buckled under landslides. The storm brought disruption unmatched in decades.

But beneath the staggering data lies another story, one frequently ignored when disasters strike. It is the story of women, the invisible backbone of Sri ...