Powerful storms hit Thailand and Indonesia, causing extraordinary floods and landslides that submerged homes, fields, roads and cars. Dozens of people were killed and injured, while many people are missing.
Sumatra was destroyed
Very impressed the island of Sumatra, where heavy rains triggered sudden floods and landslidesdetermine the temporary balance at least 10 people were killed and 6 people were missing. Rescue operations proved extremely complicated in six districts in North Sumatra province, due to overflowing waterways due to monsoon rainfall in the previous week. The floodwaters hit hillside villages with mud, rocks and trees, leaving a trail of destruction, the national police said in a statement.
On Wednesday, intervention teams found at least five bodies and three injured people in the city of Sibolga, the most affected area. The search is still ongoing for four local residents who were reported missing. In the area around central Tapanuli Regency, landslides hit several houses, causing the death of a family of four. The flood also submerged nearly 2,000 houses and buildings.
In southern Tapanuli Regency, landslides and floods uprooted trees, killing one villager and injuring others. Footage released on social media documented streams of water pouring onto roofs, as residents desperately tried to save themselves. In some places, the sudden rise in water has turned arterial roads into torrents carrying tree trunks and debris.
Sibolga Police Chief Eddy Inganta confirmed the establishment of emergency shelters and urged residents in risk areas to evacuate immediately, considering that continuous rainfall could trigger further landslides. “Bad weather and landslides are seriously hampering rescue operations,” Inganta said, underlining that access to affected areas remains limited.
Earthquake
The northern region of the island was also hit by an earthquake measuring 4.5 on the Richter scale. According to the National Seismological Center, the earthquake occurred at a depth of 150 kilometers. This seismic event is not the only one that has hit Indonesia in recent times. It was only in October that a 6.6 magnitude earthquake hit the West Papua region.
Tuesday’s disaster occurred just as the National Disaster Management Agency announced the official end of rescue operations in two areas on the island of Java, after ten days of searching. More than a thousand rescue teams have been deployed to search for people buried under landslides triggered by heavy rains, which have caused 38 deaths in Cilacap and Banjarnegara districts, in Central Java. Until the end of the operation, at least two people in Cilacap and eleven people in Banjarnegara were still missing.
More than 30 people died in Thailand
Instead they have Record flooding due to heavy rain that hit Thailand caused at least 33 people to diewhere authorities deployed military ships and helicopters to support civil protection rescue operations. Flooding hit ten provinces in the country’s south, where the city of Hat Yai, a commercial center on the border with Malaysia, recorded the heaviest rainfall in 300 years.
More than 2 million people were affected by the floods. The army announced the deployment of an aircraft carrier and a fleet of 14 ships loaded with humanitarian aid and a field kitchen that can distribute 3,000 meals a day. A medical team with hospital facilities and materials has boarded the aircraft carrier. Boats, trucks and jet skis were also deployed to evacuate residents, said the governor of Songkhla province, where Hat Yai is located. Yesterday the government designated Songkh as a disaster area.
