Floods in Southeast Asia kill 600

Heavy rains triggered floods and landslides in parts of South Asia, killing about 600 people.

Millions of people have been affected in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Sri Lanka as tropical storms intensified monsoon rains, triggering the region’s worst flooding in years.

Heavy rainfall began on the Indonesian island of Sumatra on Wednesday. “During the floods, everything disappears,” a resident of Birun in Aceh, Sumatra, told Reuters. “I wanted to keep my clothes, but my house collapsed.”

The death toll is likely to rise as hundreds of people are still missing. Thousands of people are still trapped, some waiting on rooftops for rescue.

As of Saturday, more than 300 people had died in Indonesia and 160 in Thailand. Several deaths were also reported in Malaysia.

More than 130 people have died and about 170 are missing in cyclone-hit Sri Lanka, officials said.

Rare tropical cyclone Senyal caused catastrophic landslides and floods in Sri Lanka and Indonesia, washing away homes and submerging thousands of buildings.

Indonesia’s disaster relief agency said on Saturday that nearly 300 people were still missing after flooding hit the island of Sumatra.

Arini Amalia, a resident of Aceh province, told the BBC: “The water flowed very fast and within seconds it reached the streets and entered the houses.”

She and her grandmother ran to a relative’s house on higher ground. When she returned the next day to retrieve some belongings, she said floodwaters had completely engulfed the house: “It’s sunk.”

Meri Osman said he was “washed away” by the current and clung to a clothesline until he was rescued as water levels rose rapidly and inundated his home in West Sumatra.

Indonesia’s disaster relief agency said bad weather had hampered rescue operations and that although tens of thousands had been evacuated, hundreds were still trapped.

In Thailand’s southern Songkhla province, water levels rose 3 million (10 feet), killing at least 145 people in one of the worst floods in a decade.

The government said on Saturday that more than 160 people had died in 10 provinces hit by floods. More than 3.8 million people are affected.

Hat Yai’s single-day rainfall reached 335 mm, the highest in 300 years. As floodwaters receded, officials recorded a sharp rise in deaths.

The morgue of a hospital in Hat Yai was so overwhelmed that staff were forced to move bodies to refrigerated trucks, AFP reported.

“We have been trapped in the water for seven days and no agency has come to help,” Hat Yai resident Thanita Khiawhom told BBC Thai.

The government has promised relief measures, including compensation of up to 2 million baht ($62,000) for families who lost family members.

In neighboring Malaysia, the death toll was much lower, but the damage was equally devastating.

Flooding caused severe damage, submerging parts of northern Perlis, killing two people and forcing tens of thousands of people to seek refuge in shelters.

Sri Lanka is also dealing with one of its worst weather disasters in recent years, with the government declaring a state of emergency.

Officials said more than 15,000 homes were destroyed and about 78,000 people were forced into temporary shelters. About a third of the country has no electricity or running water, they added.

Meteorologists say extreme weather in Southeast Asia may be caused by the interaction of Typhoon Kodong in the Philippines and Cyclone Senya, a rare cyclone in the Strait of Malacca.

The region’s annual monsoon season, usually between June and September, often brings heavy rains.

Climate change is altering storm patterns, including the intensity and duration of seasons, leading to increased rainfall, flash floods and stronger winds.