600 dead in Southeast Asia floods

Heavy rains have caused floods and landslides in southern Asia, killing about 600 people.

Monsoon rains, exacerbated by tropical storms, have caused the region’s worst flooding in years, affecting millions in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Sri Lanka.

Heavy rain began on the Indonesian island of Sumatra on Wednesday. “Everything was lost during the floods,” a resident of Biruen, Sumatra’s Aceh province, told Reuters. “I wanted to save my clothes, but my house collapsed.”

With hundreds of people still missing, the death toll is likely to rise further. Thousands remain stranded, some waiting for rescue on rooftops.

As of Saturday, more than 300 people had died in Indonesia and 160 in Thailand. There were several deaths in Malaysia as well.

In Sri Lanka, which was hit hard by the cyclone, more than 130 people were killed and about 170 were missing, officials said.

An extremely rare tropical cyclone called Cyclone Senyar caused deadly landslides and floods in Sri Lanka and Indonesia, sweeping away homes and leaving thousands of buildings submerged.

Indonesia’s disaster management agency said nearly 300 people were missing after flooding hit the Sumatra region on Saturday.

Arini Amalia, a resident of Aceh province, told the BBC: “The flow was very fast. In a matter of seconds, it reached the street and entered the house.”

She and her grandmother ran to a relative’s house on higher ground. When she returned the next day to collect her belongings, she said the flood had completely engulfed her home. “The house has already sunk.”

After rapidly rising waters in West Sumatra submerged her home, Mary Osman said she was “swept away by the current” and clung to a clothesline until rescued.

Bad weather is hampering rescue efforts and tens of thousands of people have been evacuated, but hundreds remain stranded, Indonesia’s disaster agency said.

In Thailand’s southern Songkhla province, the worst flooding in a decade saw water rise 3 meters (10 feet) and kill at least 145 people.

More than 160 people have died across 10 provinces affected by floods, the government said Saturday. More than 3.8 million people were affected.

In Hat Yai, 335 mm of rain fell in one day, the heaviest rain in 300 years. As the waters receded, authorities recorded a sharp increase in the death toll.

At one hospital in Hat Yai, staff had to move bodies to refrigerated trucks after the morgue was full, AFP reported.

“We were stuck underwater for seven days and no agency came to help us,” Hat Yai resident Tanita Kiahome told BBC Thai.

The government promised relief measures, including compensation of up to 2 million baht ($62,000) for households that lost family members.

In neighboring Malaysia, the death toll is much lower, but the damage is just as devastating.

Floods have wreaked havoc, submerging parts of northern Perlis province, killing two people and forcing tens of thousands to seek shelter.

Sri Lanka is also experiencing the worst weather disaster in recent years, and the government has declared a state of emergency.

More than 15,000 homes were destroyed and about 78,000 people were forced into temporary shelters, officials said. They added that about a third of the country is without electricity or running water.

Meteorologists say the interaction between Typhoon Koto in the Philippines and Cyclone Senyar in the Strait of Malacca may have caused the unusual weather in Southeast Asia.

Heavy rains are frequent during the region’s annual monsoon season, which typically runs from June to September.

Climate change is changing storm patterns, including the intensity and duration of seasons, resulting in more rainfall, flash flooding, and stronger winds.