Arlene de Silva awoke Sunday morning to a text message from an international delivery company. We are unable to deliver your packages due to the situation…
Arlene de Silva awoke Sunday morning to a text message from an international delivery company.
We are unable to deliver your packages due to the situation in Sri Lanka.
What situation? she thought. She’d sent Easter gifts to family members and friends in her native Sri Lanka. De Silva went to her news feed to read preliminary reports that a series of bombs had exploded in her hometown of Colombo, killing and injuring several hundred, including at St. Anthony’s Shrine, where her mother took her as a child.
«I had just spoken to my brother, 24 hours earlier,» said de Silva, 64, of Mount Lookout. «I know my family members are safe, but I do not know about my friends.»
On Tuesday, the Islamic State on claimed responsibility for a series of bombings at churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka that killed 321 and injured 500. The group made the claim through its Amaq News Agency, USA TODAY reported.
MORE: IS claims Sri Lanka attacks
«It is a huge sadness because this is a country that has known peace for the past 10 years, after a 30-year civil war,» said de Silva, who completed college study in accounting and music in Sri Lanka and came to the United States and Cincinnati in 1978 for an extended visit with her sister, who studied at the time at Xavier University.
