The death toll from devastating floods and landslides in south-east Asia reportedly climbed past 500 on Saturday as clean-up and search-and-rescue operations got under way in Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia.
Heavy monsoon rain overwhelmed swathes of the three countries this week, killing hundreds and leaving thousands stranded, many on rooftops awaiting rescue.
Rescuers in Indonesia were struggling to reach the worst-affected areas of Sumatra island, where at least 350 people have died and 279 are still missing.
The death toll in North Sumatra rose to 166, while 90 people died in West Sumatra. Rescuers also retrieved 47 bodies in Aceh, said Suharyanto, head of the National Disaster Management Agency.
More than 3,500 police were deployed to search for people still missing and help distribute aid to more than 28,400 who fled to temporary government shelters across the province.
About 80,000 people have been evacuated and hundreds are still stranded in three provinces across Sumatra island, Indonesia’s western-most area, Suharyanto, told a news conference, adding that a cloud-seeding operation would begin in West Sumatra to reduce the rainfall, most of which had already subsided by Saturday.
In Thailand, more than 1.4 million households – 3.8 million people – have been affected by the floods, the department of disaster prevention and mitigation said on Saturday.
In southern Thailand, water levels reached 3 metres in Songkhla province and killed at least 145 people in one of the worst floods in a decade.
The country’s death toll across eight provinces has risen to 162, the government said on Saturday.
Workers at one hospital in hard-hit Hat Yai moved bodies into refrigerated trucks after the morgue exceeded capacity.
The prime minister, Anutin Charnvirakul, visited a shelter for evacuees in the district on Friday and told reporters he acknowledged the government’s shortcomings in flood management.
“I really have to apologise to them for letting this happen during the time I am in government,” he said in footage broadcast on AmarinTV.
“The next step is to prevent the situation from deteriorating,” he added, announcing a two-week timeframe for the district’s clean-up.
The Thai government rolled out relief measures for those affected by the flooding, including compensation of up to 2m baht ($62,000, £46,800) for households that lost family members.
As flood waters receded, shop-owner Rachane Remsringam picked through rubbish strewn between the aisles of his general goods store, lamenting hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses.
His store, Madam Yong, was looted and vandalised in the wake of the disaster, he said.
There has been growing public criticism of Thailand’s flood response and two local officials have been suspended over their alleged failures.
An MP from the opposition People’s party criticised the administration, saying it “wrongly estimated the situation” and made “errors in handling the flood crisis”.
One victim of the flood, Amphorn Kaeophengkro, told Reuters she and seven members of her family spent 48 hours perched atop a table, a window frame and a washing machine on the second floor of her home in the city of Hat Yai, which received 335mm (13 inches) of rain last Friday – its highest single-day tally in 300 years.
“We weren’t thinking about anything else except surviving,” the 44-year-old told Reuters by candlelight, as her family began to clean their dwelling after the water had receded.
Two people were killed in Malaysia by flooding caused by heavy rain that left stretches of northern Perlis state under water.
The annual monsoon season, typically between June and September, often brings heavy rain, triggering landslides and flash floods.
A tropical storm has exacerbated conditions, and the tolls in Indonesia and Thailand rank among the highest in floods in those countries in recent years.
Climate change has affected storm patterns, including the duration and intensity of the season, leading to heavier rainfall, flash flooding and stronger wind gusts.
Reporting from Reuters and Agence France-Presse in Padang, Indonesia
