BANDA ACEH: Governments and aid groups in Indonesia and Sri Lanka worked on Tuesday to rush aid to hundreds of thousands stranded by deadly flooding that has killed 1,300 people in four countries.
Torrential monsoon season deluges paired with two separate tropical cyclones last week dumped heavy rain across Sri Lanka and parts of Indonesia’s Sumatra, southern Thailand and northern Malaysia.
Climate change is producing more intense rain events because a warmer atmosphere holds more moisture, and warmer oceans can turbocharge storms.
AFP analysis of US weather data showed several flood-hit regions across Asia experienced their highest November rainfall totals since 2012.
Hundreds of thousands living in shelters struggle to secure clean water, food
The floodwaters have now largely receded, but the devastation means hundreds of thousands of people are living in shelters and struggling to secure clean water and food.
In Indonesia’s Aceh, one of the worst-affected regions, people told AFP that anyone who could afford to was stockpiling.
“Road access is mostly cut off in flood-affected areas,” 29-year-old Erna Mardhiah said as she joined a long queue at a petrol station in Banda Aceh.
“People are worried about running out of fuel,” she added from the line she had been waiting in for two hours. The pressure has affected prices.
Colombo floodwaters recede
A separate storm brought heavy rains across all of Sri Lanka, triggering flash floods and deadly landslides that killed at least 410 people.
Another 336 remain missing, and an official in the central town of Welimada told local reporters he expected the toll to rise, as his staff dug through the mud looking for victims buried by landslides.
President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has declared a state of emergency to deal with what he called the “most challenging natural disaster in our history”.
Unlike his Indonesian counterpart, he has called for international aid.
Sri Lanka’s air force, backed by counterparts from Pakistan and India, has been evacuating stranded residents and delivering food and other supplies.
Published in Dawn, December 3rd, 2025