Jakarta: Communities across Southeast Asia are facing a deep humanitarian crisis after a rare tropical storm brought record rainfall flooding and landslides across several countries. The disaster has now claimed more than 500 lives and affected over 4 million people according to regional authorities and rescue agencies.
Indonesia has suffered the heaviest impact with hundreds of deaths reported mainly in Sumatra where several towns remain cut off. Roads bridges and communication lines have been destroyed making rescue work slow and dangerous. Emergency teams say helicopters are being used to reach areas where floodwaters and landslides have blocked every route.
In Thailand southern provinces are struggling after days of intense rain. The city of Hat Yai recorded more than 300 millimeters of rain in a single day which experts say may be the highest rainfall in the region in centuries. Thousands of homes are under water and many families are sheltering in schools and government buildings.
Malaysia also continues to face widespread flooding though officials say weather conditions are slowly improving. More than twenty thousand people are still staying in evacuation centers as their homes remain unsafe.
At the same time Sri Lanka has been hit by another severe weather event where more than one hundred people have died and many more are missing. Roads rivers and farms have been damaged adding to worries about food supplies in the coming months.
Rescue teams across the region are working day and night but challenges remain. There are reports of shortages of clean water medicine and food in some remote areas and long queues for relief supplies in others. Some aid trucks have needed police escort after people attempted to grab supplies before distribution points opened.
Weather experts say the storm formed in an unusual location in the Malacca Strait an event that has rarely been recorded. Many scientists believe climate change may be increasing the frequency and intensity of such extreme weather events in the region.
Governments are now focusing on both immediate relief and long term recovery. Leaders have asked for international support and humanitarian groups are preparing more emergency resources. As water levels slowly begin to recede families are returning to search for missing relatives recover belongings and assess damage.
For many affected people the rebuilding process may take months or even years. But aid workers say the priority today remains clear to rescue the missing protect survivors and restore essential services to communities that have lost almost everything.