Heavy rains have caused widespread flooding and landslides across Asia, leaving more than 600 people dead and hundreds still missing.
Heavy rains from a cyclone battered parts of Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia this week, creating a rare tropical storm in the Strait of Malacca, the narrow waterway separating Indonesia’s Sumatra island from the other two countries.
According to a post by X, 47 flights were canceled at Chennai airport on Saturday as Sri Lanka was hit by another storm, with heavy rain currently approaching India’s southern coast.
The weather claimed at least 303 lives in Indonesia, 153 in Sri Lanka, 162 in Thailand and two in Malaysia, officials told Reuters.
Indonesian rescue teams are struggling to reach the hardest-hit areas of Sumatra, where Cyclone Senyar caused devastating landslides and flooding.
At least 303 people were killed and 279 were missing, the head of Indonesia’s Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) told Reuters on Saturday.
Video footage shows helicopters delivering supplies to the island, known for its lush rainforest, active volcanoes and endangered orangutans.
“During the floods, everything was lost,” a resident of Bireuwen, Sumatra’s northernmost province of Aceh, told Reuters.
“I wanted to save my clothes, but the house collapsed.”
Monsoon rains caused rivers to overflow in North Sumatra province, and rescue teams have been working since Tuesday to reach residents stranded in the flood waters.
Footage from local media showed people using rubber boats to evacuate trapped people.
in thailand
At least 162 people have died across the strait due to extreme weather in southern Thailand, government spokesman Siriporn Angkasakarkiat told Reuters on Saturday.
Approximately 3.5 million people have been affected, and authorities are airlifting patients and vital supplies such as oxygen tanks to submerged areas, the newspaper said.
When floodwaters rushed into their home in Hat Yai last Saturday, Amphorn Kaeofenkro and his family of eight did not have time to escape.
Instead, as the water level rose, they were rushed upstairs and ended up spending 48 hours on tables, washing machines, and window sills.
“We weren’t thinking about anything but survival,” the 44-year-old woman told Reuters by candlelight as her family began cleaning their home after the waters receded.
“Sometimes we had to sit on the edge of the window and put our feet up to keep them from going too deep in the water.”
The city of Hat Yai, Thailand’s worst-hit area, recorded the heaviest rains in 300 years, with floodwaters rising more than 8 feet on Tuesday, cutting off access to a maternity ward housing 30 newborns, staff and officials said.
It is not yet clear when power will be restored to areas where government agencies are providing evacuation, medical assistance and essential supplies.
The city is part of Thailand’s Songkhla region, and authorities told X that the government declared a state of emergency on Tuesday due to severe flooding.
The Ministry of Tourism told CNN on Friday that 10 tourists from Australia, Britain, China, Malaysia, Singapore and South Africa were rescued in Songkhla province.
“The situation has improved significantly. The water level has almost completely receded and only some areas remain flooded,” the spokesperson said.
More than 500,000 people felt the effects of Cyclone Ditwa on Friday, which caused landslides and flooding, Reuters reported.
According to the news agency, Mallika Kumari was among more than 78,000 people whose homes quickly submerged under water and who were taken to relief centers set up mostly in schools.
“I first heard about the flood warning on TV, but I didn’t expect the river to flood so quickly. I ran out of the house without anything,” Kumari told reporters.
“We haven’t even had breakfast. Two of my sons have the flu. I have to give them medicine. I brought some garbage bags to collect their clothes.”
In her hurry, Kumari left the cat behind, which was later picked up by a navy boat and brought to shore.
Some 191 people remain missing in Sri Lanka, and most homes in low-lying areas near the capital Colombo are submerged in water and without power, authorities told Reuters.
The newspaper said some residents decided to stay in the upper floors of their partially submerged homes to protect their belongings.
At Dargala Takiya Mosque, volunteers prepared packets of chicken and rice with dal curry for flood victims.
Risham Ahmed, the organizer of the meal, told Reuters: “Requests for the meal are increasing because people who have day-to-day jobs are unable to find work and their savings are being depleted.”
“They’re worried about how to get their lives back on track.”
According to Reuters, two people were confirmed dead in Malaysia after tropical cyclone Senyar made landfall just after midnight on Friday.
Some 34,000 people were evacuated ahead of the storm, but Gon Kasim and her husband were not so lucky, stranded in a field in northern Perlis state last weekend after rising floodwaters cut off their escape route.
The elderly couple was eventually rescued by one of their children and taken to an evacuation center in the state capital Kangar, where hundreds of families took shelter in tents provided by the National Disaster Management Agency, Reuters reported.
“I was indoors and couldn’t go outside. When I did go outside, there was nowhere else to be but the field,” Gong, 73, told reporters in an interview on Wednesday, recalling his ordeal.
“The water looked like the ocean. That’s exactly what it felt like.”
Southeast Asia, including Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia, is among the regions most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, scientists have warned.
The current extreme weather conditions in the region can be attributed to the interaction of two active systems: Typhoon Koto in the Philippines and Cyclone Senyal in the Strait of Malacca, meteorologists told Reuters.
Elsewhere in Southeast Asia this month, deadly flooding struck parts of Vietnam, killing dozens of people as a result of flooding and landslides.
Also in the region this month, the Philippines endured two deadly typhoons, Kalmegi and Hungwon, in one week, killing hundreds and forcing more than 1.4 million to evacuate.
Temperatures reached unprecedented levels in the region again this summer, with little respite from the unrelenting heat and humidity, climatologist Maximiliano Herrera told CNN.
