Death toll from Southeast Asian storms nears 700 as scale of devastation revealed

• Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand are witnessing large-scale disasters.
• At least 176 people die in Thailand and three in Malaysia.
• The death toll in Indonesia has reached 502, while another 508 are missing.

PALEMBAYAN: Rescue teams in western Indonesia battled on Monday to clear roads cut off by landslides and flooding caused by the cyclone, as improving weather revealed more of the scale of a disaster that has killed nearly 700 people in Southeast Asia.

Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand have suffered large-scale devastation after a rare tropical storm formed in the Straits of Malacca, unleashing torrential rain and gusty winds for a week that hampered efforts to reach people stranded by mudslides and severe flooding.

At least 176 were killed in Thailand and three in Malaysia, while the death toll rose to 502 in Indonesia on Monday with 508 missing, according to official figures.

Under sunshine and clear blue skies in the city of Palembayan in Indonesia’s West Sumatra, hundreds of people cleared mud, trees and debris from the streets as some residents tried to salvage valuables such as documents and motorbikes from their damaged homes.

Men in camouflage sifted through piles of twisted poles, concrete roofs and sheet metal as trucks filled with people drove around looking for missing family members and handing out water to people, some wading through knee-deep mud.

Months of adverse, deadly weather

The government’s recovery efforts include restoring roads, bridges and telecommunications services.

More than 28,000 homes have been damaged in Indonesia and 1.4 million people have been affected, according to the disaster agency.

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto visited the three affected provinces on Monday and praised residents for their spirit in the face of what he called a disaster.

“There are roads that are still cut off, but we are doing everything we can to overcome the difficulties,” he said in North Sumatra.

“We face this disaster with resilience and solidarity. Our nation is strong right now, able to overcome it.”

The disasters in the three countries follow months of severe and deadly weather in Southeast Asia, including typhoons that have battered the Philippines and Vietnam and caused frequent and prolonged flooding elsewhere.

Scientists have warned that extreme weather events will become more frequent as a result of global warming.

Maroon for days

In Thailand, the death toll rose slightly to 176 on Monday from flooding in eight southern provinces that affected about three million people and prompted a major mobilization of its military to evacuate critically ill patients from hospitals and reach people trapped for days by flooding.

In the worst-hit Songkhla province, where 138 people were killed, the government said 85 percent of water services had been restored and would be fully operational by Wednesday.

Much of Thailand’s recovery effort is focused on the hardest-hit city of Hat Yai, a southern commercial hub that on Nov. 21 received 335 mm (13 inches) of rain, the highest single-day total in 300 years, followed by days of unrelenting downpours.

Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul set a seven-day timeline for residents to return to their homes, a government spokesman said Monday.

In neighboring Malaysia, 11,600 people were still in evacuation centers, according to the country’s disaster agency, which said it was still on alert for second and third waves of flooding.