Emergency teams across multiple countries in South and Southeast Asia are pushing ahead with search and relief missions as the death toll from widespread flooding continues to grow.
Severe storms that struck the region last week have resulted in at least 334 deaths in Sri Lanka, 502 in Indonesia, and 170 in Thailand, according to official reports.
In Sri Lanka, search teams are looking for about 370 people after a powerful cyclone swept through the island, unleashing torrents of rain that swamped homes, farmland, and major routes while also causing landslides in elevated areas.
Close to a million residents have been affected by the intense rainfall, with nearly 200,000 forced to leave their homes for temporary shelters, according to the national disaster authority.
On Monday, residents along the Kelani river near Colombo were seen retrieving whatever they could from waterlogged houses.
Transport networks have slowly begun recovering, with both rail and air travel back in service after last week’s disruptions, though schools remain shut, officials said.
Cyclone Ditwah was the “largest and most challenging” natural disaster in Sri Lanka’s history, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake said.
The system also triggered heavy rainfall in Tamil Nadu in southern India over the weekend, where authorities confirmed that three people died in incidents linked to the downpours.
The weather disturbance, now positioned roughly 50 km (30 miles) from Chennai, has weakened into a “deep depression” and is expected to diminish further within the next 12 hours, meteorologists said on Monday.
Across Southeast Asia, nearly 700 people have lost their lives after two cyclones swept through the region. Indonesian responders are still trying to locate at least 508 missing people, based on government data.
Cleanup efforts were underway over the weekend as residents began clearing debris, fallen trees, and thick mud from major roads.
More than 28,000 houses have been damaged, and about 1.4 million people have been affected by this unusual tropical weather event.
The country’s president, Prabowo Subianto, described the situation as catastrophic and promised full reconstruction efforts during a visit to three heavily impacted provinces on Monday, where close to 300,000 people have been displaced.
In Thailand, flooding across eight southern provinces has touched roughly three million residents, prompting large-scale deployment of military personnel to move hospital patients and reach communities isolated by rising water.
Hat Yai, the hardest-hit urban centre, recorded 335 mm (13 inches) of rainfall on 21 November — its heaviest single-day total in three centuries — followed by continual rain in the days after.
Prime Minister Anutin Charnivirakul expects residents to be able to return home within seven days, a government spokesperson said on Monday.
Compensation payments are scheduled to commence on Monday, starting with 239m baht (£5.6m) allocated for 26,000 affected individuals, the spokesperson added.
In Malaysia, at least three deaths have been recorded, and officials remain on high alert as the country braces for potential second and third waves of flooding while 11,600 people remain in emergency shelters.
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