Indonesia flood deaths exceed 500

The death toll from the floods that hit Indonesia last week has now risen to more than 500, and rescue workers are still fighting to reach affected areas.

Floods caused by a rare cyclone in the Strait of Malacca have hit three provinces and affected about 1.4 million people, the government’s disaster agency said.

Another 500 people were missing and thousands more were injured.

Indonesia is just one of several Asian regions hit by heavy rain and storms in recent days, with Thailand, Malaysia and Sri Lanka all reporting deaths.

In Indonesia, the provinces of Aceh, North Sumatra and West Sumatra are the hardest hit, with thousands of provinces still blocked and without critical supplies.

Arini Amalia, a resident of Pidi Jaya district in Aceh province, told the BBC that the flood damage was “like a tsunami”.

Amalia said, “According to my grandmother, this is the worst situation of her life.”

Aid workers have been trying to reach people on foot or by motorcycle as many roads are impassable for large vehicles.

Photos of the area show bridges washed away, roads covered in mud and debris and logs piled high.

At the Twin Bridges landmark in West Sumatra, where floods swept through and left huge amounts of mud and debris behind, Mariana watched excavators clear the road, hoping to find her missing family members, including her 15-year-old son.

“Watching the excavator, how thick the mud is… I keep thinking about what state my child will be in when they are found.” she said “Are you still okay? My mother, my brother-in-law… I probably won’t even recognize your face if I see you here now.”

Many people are still waiting for food assistance, and some say they have not had anything to eat for two or three days.

Maysanti, who lives in Central Tapanuli, one of the hardest-hit areas in North Sumatra, told the BBC that aid workers were having difficulty accessing his area.

“Everything is gone. Our food supply is low. We can’t eat,” she said. “Now there is a war over ramen. We have no food. We need food and rice. Access to us is completely blocked.”

She said she had to walk kilometers from her home to get basic necessities such as internet connection and clean water.

In central Aceh, where local authorities provided Starlink devices, thousands were seen waiting in line outside the regent’s office on Sunday night to contact loved ones or charge their phones.

One resident called Mar and said, “There has been no signal for five days. I have been waiting since yesterday for the network to come back. I tried to call my mother in Banda Aceh, but I still haven’t been able to reach her.”

As rescue efforts continued, anger toward the government’s response to the disaster began to grow.

Critics say authorities were unprepared for flooding. Some have criticized bureaucratic red tape that has slowed the distribution of food aid.

President Prabowo Subianto, who visited some flood-hit areas in North Sumatra on Monday, acknowledged that some roads were still blocked, but added: “We are doing our best to overcome the difficulties.”

“We face this disaster with resilience and solidarity,” he added. “Our country is strong now and we can overcome this.”

Floods and landslides killed about 1,100 people across South and Southeast Asia last week. In Sri Lanka, about 355 people died, and in Thailand, the death toll reached at least 176.

However, no single weather phenomenon caused the flooding. Instead, a combination of weather characteristics were to blame.

One factor is the northeast monsoon, which affects East and South Asia from November to March, according to BBC Weather.

As the name suggests, it brings northeastern winds, which pick up moisture from the sea and deposit it on land, bringing heavy rain to coastal areas exposed to these monsoon flows.

In Sri Lanka, rainfall increased significantly due to Cyclone Storm Ditwah. The storm moved very slowly, dropping more than half a meter of rain in some areas over several days.

The storm has now weakened and moved north, bringing rain to southeastern India, while Sri Lanka is expected to become much drier over the next few days.

In the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra and southern Thailand, Cyclone Storm Senyar had a similar impact, strengthening the monsoon and dropping more than a meter of rain in some areas. This was a particularly rare storm that formed unusually close to the equator, where cyclones do not typically form.

The past few weeks have been unusually wet in Vietnam, with monsoon rains intensifying due to tropical cyclones. Now remnants of former Typhoon Goto are drifting toward Vietnam’s coast, threatening more heavy rain and flooding.

Climate change likely also played a role. Although global warming is not expected to lead to more tropical storms and cyclones, the storms and cyclones that do occur are likely to become stronger, and more rainfall could lead to more flooding.