New balance points to 914 deaths due to floods in Indonesia

In the update, Indonesian authorities reduced the number of missing persons to 389, down from the 520 reported earlier today. The floods and landslides, triggered by a cyclone at the end of November, have caused 4,200 injuries and affected nearly 3.5 million people.

In Aceh province, one of the hardest-hit areas in northern Sumatra, a long line of people waited today to purchase gas cylinders for cooking. Authorities are transporting food and other aid products to the area, but the closure of numerous roads and the isolation of many areas make it difficult for teams, some in helicopters, to reach all those affected.

“People are leaving their homes because they can no longer live there, as they have been buried… In many houses, the mud reaches up to the ceiling,” said 38-year-old Mahmudi Ishak, a resident in Meureudu, Aceh, to the Spanish news agency EFE.

With a close friend among the deceased, this Indonesian highlighted the logistical difficulties for aid to reach his location due to collapsed bridges and road closures due to landslides. “The destruction caused by these floods has affected almost all districts (of Aceh). It has left us all bewildered. The power grid was destroyed, and logistic supply was interrupted. Therefore, it seems worse than the 2004 tsunami,” Mahmudi said.

Indonesian authorities have also suspended mining activity in the region while investigating a dozen companies to determine if deforestation activities in Sumatra may have contributed to worsening the disaster. Sri Lanka and Thailand, with a total of deaths around 500 and over 275, respectively, besides Indonesia, were the countries most affected by the floods in recent weeks in Thailand.

The tropical storm and typhoon season is proving more devastating this year in these countries, with environmental experts attributing the causes to ocean warming, the impact of deforestation, or lack of urban planning, among other factors. Meanwhile, more heavy rains are expected today in Sri Lanka and Indonesia, which may hinder the recovery from floods and landslides.

Tropical storms and monsoon rains that hit this region of Asia last week killed around 1,800 people in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam. Hunger and the difficulty of humanitarian aid reaching remote areas of Aceh may lead to an increase in the death toll, warned the governor of the province, Muzakir Manaf.