The authorities in Indonesia were searching on Sunday for hundreds of people they said were missing after days of unusually heavy rains across Southeast Asia that have killed hundreds and displaced millions.
The rescue efforts were underway on the island of Sumatra, where heavy rains pounded villages, blocked roads and damaged bridges, according to Indonesia’s National Disaster Management Agency. Around 80,000 people had been evacuated as of Saturday, an official from the agency said at a news conference, and more rain was in the forecast.
Rescuers were digging through rubble with excavators and delivering aid by helicopters to inaccessible areas. Footage from Reuters showed survivors being airlifted out of murky floodwaters on Sumatra as wind whipped through treetops.
Indonesia is one of several Southeast Asian countries affected over the past few weeks by some of the region’s heaviest rainfall in years. The official death toll has surpassed 300 in Indonesia, 160 in Thailand and 90 in Vietnam. Malaysia has reported two deaths and extensive damage.
In Sri Lanka, 193 people have been killed by flooding, and emergency workers have been conducting rescues of stranded people for days, the country’s disaster management service reported.
Recent flooding in southern Thailand displaced more than two million and left some people trapped on their roofs, clinging to electrical wires to stay afloat. That prompted the Thai military to deploy troops and other resources, including an aircraft carrier with helicopters, medical personnel and field kitchens.
Heavy rain is common across Southeast Asia around this time of year, but experts say the recent extreme weather has been exacerbated partly by La Niña, a weather phenomenon in which strong winds push warm water across the Pacific toward East Asia and create conditions for storms to form.
The recent heavy rain in Indonesia was also linked to two tropical cyclones moving through the region.
One of them, Tropical Storm Koto, was traveling across the South China Sea toward Vietnam on Sunday with maximum sustained winds of 58 miles per hour, according to the U.S. Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center.
Jin Yu Young is a reporter and researcher for The Times, based in Seoul, covering South Korea and international breaking news.
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