<p><br /> The UN is to launch an appeal for emergency flood aid for Sri Lanka, where at least 37 people have died.<br /> </p><p><br /> Nearly 390,000 people have been displaced and 3,744 houses have been totally destroyed.<br /> </p><p><br /> The Disaster Management Agency says at least 21 per cent of Sri Lanka's staple rice crop has been destroyed, raising concerns over supply and higher food inflation.<br /> </p><p><br /> The Sri Lankan government has put the initial estimate of damages from flooding across a third of the Island at $500 million.<br /> </p><p><br /> Greater-than-normal monsoon rains since early January have pounded Sri Lanka's Northern, Eastern, Central and North Central provinces, setting off mudslides, swamping roads and bursting hundreds of dams and reservoirs.<br /> </p>
