Death toll tops 800 as intense storms hammer Asian countries
A dog crosses a flooded street in Wellampitiya, Sri Lanka. (Reuters: Thilina Kaluthotage)
In short:
At least 800 people are dead due to extreme weather conditions across Asia.
Nearly 1 million people across Sri Lanka have been affected by floods, which have killed at least 355 in the country.
Some residents on the Indonesian island of Sumatra have resorted to stealing food and water.
Extreme weather across Asia has killed more than 800 people, with floods, cyclones and torrential rain continuing to affect millions.
The death toll in Sri Lanka from Cyclone Ditwah climbed to 355 with 366 missing, officials said on Sunday, as floodwaters breached a dam and rescue operations continued for a fourth day.
Nearly a million people had been impacted by the heavy rains and floods that had swept through large parts of the south-Asian island nation, forcing nearly 200,000 people into 1,275 shelters, the Disaster Management Centre said in a statement.
Colombo, Sri Lanka's commercial capital, is among the most affected areas. (AP: Eranga Jayawardena)
Record rains lashed the country from last Thursday, causing multiple landslides in the hilly central region, while overflowing rivers submerged entire towns nationwide.
More than 24,000 police, army and air force personnel were still trying to reach families stranded by floods, authorities said.
Sri Lanka's air force used helicopters to fly more than 120 people to safety after water breached the dam of the Mavil Aru Reservoir in the eastern part of the island.
About another 2,000 people were moved to higher ground for safety, the military said in a statement.
Floodwaters have trapped dozens of families in their homes in the commercial capital of Colombo, which is one of the worst-affected places.
In the Colombo suburb of Kelaniya, as in many other parts of the country, state agencies and donors were supplying cooked food, but many people told Reuters they had yet to receive adequate help.
More than 17,000 people are living in shelters waiting for the floodwaters to retreat from their homes.
Many Sri Lankan families remain stranded by floods. (Reuters: Thilina Kaluthotage )
"My sister and I were trapped on the upper floor of our home with our four children for two days," Sunethra Priyadarshani, 37, told Reuters.
"We slowly ran out of food. We only had biscuits and water to give them last night."
The family was rescued by a boat that delivered lunch to them.
The irrigation department said the floodwaters were expected to gradually recede over the next three days as the cyclone moved towards southern India.
Power, water and communications would be gradually restored over the next three days, authorities said, after transmission lines and transformers were swept away by floods.
Indonesians desperate for food, water after deadly floods
In Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, where torrential rains have caused floods and landslides, officials said on Sunday the death toll had mounted to more than 600.
Relief efforts for tens of thousands of displaced people continued over the weekend.
South-East Asia faced large-scale devastation after a rare tropical storm formed in the Malacca Strait, fuelling heavy rains and wind gusts for a week.
People carry their belongings through their flooded village in Aceh, Indonesia. (AP: Reza Saifullah)
More than 4 million people have been affected — nearly 3 million in southern Thailand and 1.1 million in western Indonesia, according to official statistics.
There were 435 deaths in Indonesia, 170 in Thailand, and three deaths reported in Malaysia.
Some residents of the flood-hit Indonesian island of Sumatra had resorted to stealing food and water to survive, authorities said.
The floods, which hit Indonesia nearly a week ago, have killed 442 people — with the number expected to rise as more bodies are recovered — and displaced 290,700 people. In addition, nearly 3,000 houses have been damaged, including 827 that have been flattened or swept away by floods.
Loading...The deluges triggered landslides, damaged roads, cut off parts of the island, and downed communication lines, prompting officials and limited communities to use Starlink satellite internet for relief operations.
Another 402 people were missing in Indonesia's three provinces of North Sumatra, West Sumatra and Aceh, according to the National Disaster Management Agency.
The challenging weather conditions and the lack of heavy equipment also hampered rescue efforts.
Aid has been slow to reach the hardest-hit city of Sibolga and the Central Tapanuli district in North Sumatra.
Videos on social media showed people scrambling past crumbling barricades, flooded roads and broken glass to get their hands on food, medicine and petrol.
A car is stuck in the mud at a village affected by flash flooding in Agam, West Sumatra, Indonesia. (AP: Ade Yuandha)
Some waded through waist-deep floodwaters to reach damaged convenience stores.
Police spokesman Ferry Walintukan said they received reports of people breaking into shops on Saturday evening, and that regional police had been deployed to restore order.
"The looting happened before logistical aid arrived," Mr Walintukan said.
"[Residents] didn't know that aid would come and were worried they would starve."
Eleven helicopters were deployed from Jakarta to the affected areas the day after the disaster for ongoing logistics distribution operations, especially to areas where land access was cut off, Indonesian cabinet secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya said on Sunday.
"But unpredictable weather often hampers aid operations," he said.
Starlink wrote on X on Saturday that it would provide free satellite internet service to people affected by floods in Indonesia and Sri Lanka until the end of December.
AP/Reuters