At least 1,200 people have been killed in floods that have ravaged southern Asia over the past few weeks, with hundreds more still missing and millions displaced across the rain-soaked region.
The flooding has been particularly devastating in Indonesia and Sri Lanka; the Sri Lankan president said on Monday that the island nation was facing the “largest and most challenging natural disaster in our history.” At least 160 are also dead in Thailand, and about 90 in Vietnam.
Although heavy rain is common in southern Asia around this time of year, residents and officials say that these storms have been particularly destructive. This year’s monsoon season has been unusually intense, partly because of La Niña, experts say — a weather phenomenon in which strong winds push warm water across the Pacific toward East Asia, creating conditions for storms to form.
Scientists have concluded that climate change also makes tropical cyclones worse because warmer water provides more of the energy that fuels the storms.
Several huge tempests have battered the region, including Cyclone Ditwah, which hit Sri Lanka and is expected to move toward India next, and Cyclone Senyar, which affected Indonesia and is now headed toward Malaysia. Both cyclones have since weakened to tropical storms.
Indonesia
Indonesia’s official death toll has reached 604, data from the national disaster management agency showed on Monday, and 464 others were still missing. Officials said the flooding had affected 1.5 million people and displaced about 570,000.
“We are grateful forecasts show better conditions, and the worst has passed,” President Prabowo Subianto of Indonesia said on Monday, the country’s state-owned news agency reported.
On the island of Sumatra, rescuers used excavators to dig through rubble and delivered aid by helicopter to inaccessible areas. Footage from Reuters showed survivors being airlifted out of murky floodwaters as wind whipped through treetops.
The downpour was fueled by two tropical cyclones moving through the region, which pushed large amounts of warm, moist air toward Indonesia’s many islands. Cyclones are very rare in the region, which is near the Equator. Areas close to the Equator lack the spin, or Coriolis effect, that usually powers such storms.
Sri Lanka
The death toll in Sri Lanka rose to at least 355 on Monday, with about 300 othersstill missing.
The storm that hit Sri Lanka, Cyclone Ditwah, has affected over a million people and caused vast flooding in the country. Emergency services were overwhelmed, and entire towns were submerged. Despite days of rescue operations, emergency teams were still struggling to reach some areas.
By Monday, the authorities had partially restored train services, electricity supply and telecommunications disrupted by the disaster.
More than 15,000 homes have been destroyed, according to an initial assessment on Sunday, the United Nations said. Access to clean drinking water is a major issue.
Thailand
At least 160 people have died in Thailand, where the flooding has displaced more than two million residents.
Some were trapped on their roofs, clinging to electrical wires to stay afloat. Last week, the Thai military deployed troops, helicopters and boats to rescue those stranded by flooding in southern provinces.
Vietnam
At least 90 people have died in flooding and landslides in Vietnam, which has been hit by 14 typhoons this year. A few decades ago, five was the average annual number of such storms.
The rain came quickly — in one province last month, more than six feet of water fell in just a few days. Rescue workers and survivors told The New York Times that floodwaters had risen too quickly to respond.
“The whole village is destroyed — trash, TVs, fridges and mud are everywhere,” Huynh Ngoc Phuong, 51, said after the waters receded from his home in the central province of Khanh Hoa. “Everyone was turned upside down. I don’t know where and how to begin to start life again.”
Nazaneen Ghaffar contributed reporting from London.
Amelia Nierenberg is a Times reporter covering international news from London.
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