Sri Lanka declared a state of emergency on Saturday and appealed for international assistance as the death toll from floods and mudslides triggered by Cyclone Ditwah rose to 153, with another 191 people missing.
The extreme weather system has destroyed more than 20,000 homes, sending 108,000 people to state-run temporary shelters, the Disaster Management Centre reported.
A further 798,000 people required assistance after being temporarily displaced by the floods, DMC spokesman Pradeep Kodippili said.
The death toll from devastating floods and landslides in Southeast Asia climbed past 460 on Saturday as clean-up and search-and-rescue operations got underway in Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia.
Heavy monsoon rain overwhelmed swaths of the three countries this week and left thousands stranded, many on rooftops awaiting rescue.
Lankan president Anura Kumara Dissanayake invoked emergency powers, granting him sweeping authority to manage the aftermath of the devastation caused by a week of torrential rain across the island.
Kodippili confirmed that 153 people had been killed. Among them were 11 residents of an elder care home that was flooded in the north-central district of Kurunegala on Saturday afternoon, police said.
Troops from the army, navy, and air force have been deployed alongside civilian workers and volunteers to assist with the relief effort.
The military rescued 69 bus passengers on Saturday, including a German tourist, who had been stranded in the Anuradhapura district after a 24-hour operation.
Roads in the central district of Badulla remained inaccessible, leaving many villages cut off and relief supplies unable to get through.
Officials said about a third of the country was without electricity or running water because power lines had collapsed and water purification facilities were inundated. Internet connections were also disrupted.
Cyclone Ditwah moved away from the island on Saturday and was heading towards neighbouring India.
India’s Chennai Airport cancelled 54 flights due to the cyclone’s approach, with the weather department forecasting extremely heavy rainfall and strong winds over the next 48 hours.
The Sri Lankan government has issued an appeal for international aid and urged Sri Lankans abroad to make cash donations to support affected communities.
India was the first to respond, sending two plane loads of relief supplies and two transport helicopters, along with a rescue crew of 22.
An Indian warship, which was already in Colombo on a previously planned goodwill visit, donated its rations to assist the victims.
Rescuers in Indonesia were struggling to reach the worst-affected areas of Sumatra island, where more than 270 people were still missing.
Flooding and landslides in Indonesia have killed more than 300 people, according to the latest figures from the disaster authority on Saturday.
Of those, 166 were in North Sumatra province, 90 were in West Sumatra, and 47 were in Aceh.
Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated, although access to many parts of those three provinces remains cut off, national disaster agency head Suharyanto said.
Water levels reached three metres in Songkhla province in southern Thailand and killed 162 people in one of the worst floods in a decade.
Workers at one hospital in hard-hit Hat Yai moved bodies into refrigerated trucks after the morgue exceeded capacity.
Thai prime minister Anutin Charnvirakul apologised for the destruction caused by the floods. ‘Whenever there are losses, deaths, or injuries, it’s always the prime minister’s fault,’ he said on Saturday.
More than 40,000 people have taken shelter in evacuation centres, according to Wanchana Sawasdee, spokesman of the flood relief operations centre, although ‘some people have already returned home’.
Malaysia’s foreign affairs ministry said more than 6,000 Malaysians who were stranded by severe flooding in Hat Yai had been rescued.
Two people were killed in Malaysia after floods left stretches of northern Perlis state underwater.
