Dozens dead as floods ravage Southeast Asia

MEDAN, Indonesia (AFP) — The toll from days of flooding in Southeast Asia rose on Friday, with at least 90 dead in Indonesia, and a hospital in southern Thailand announcing its morgue was full.

Heavy rains across Indonesia, Malaysia and southern Thailand have inundated cities, trapped thousands and caused deadly landslides.

Authorities were scrambling to reach people stranded in floodwater-filled homes or cut off entirely by debris that has blocked roads and taken out communications and electricity.

On Indonesia’s Sumatra island, officials said flooding and landslides this week have killed at least 90 people, with dozens more missing.

North Sumatra police spokesperson Ferry Walintukan said authorities were focused on “evacuation and providing assistance.”

Access to some areas and communication was still cut off, he told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

“Hopefully, the weather will clear up so we can move the helicopter to the (worst-hit) locations.”

In North Sumatra’s Medan, an AFP photographer saw murky brown floodwaters at hip level, and residents asking drivers passing their inundated homes to drive slowly to avoid splashing them.

Some residents donned rain ponchos and motorbike helmets to protect themselves from the rain as they traversed flooded streets.

‘Didn’t sleep at all’

In West Sumatra, 53-year-old Misniati described a terrifying battle against rising floodwaters to reach her husband at home.

Returning from early morning prayers at a local mosque, “I noticed the street was flooded.”

“I tried to run back to my house to tell my husband, and the water was already reaching my waist,” she told AFP.

She battled currents that nearly knocked her off her feet, and arrived home to find the water at chest level.

“We didn’t sleep at all last night, we just monitored the water,” said Misniati, who only uses one name.

Among the hardest-hit areas in the region is southern Thailand, where flooding left residents of Hat Yai clinging to rooftops awaiting rescue by boat.

The death toll from floods across the region has risen to 145, the government spokesperson, Siripong Angkasakulkiat. told a press conference on Friday, adding that over 100 people were killed in hard-hit Songkhla province alone.

The region’s main morgue said Friday it had no more room to receive bodies and was now relying on refrigerated trucks.

“The morgue has exceeded its capacity, so we need more,” Charn, a morgue official at Songkhla Hospital who only gave his first name, told AFP.

An AFP journalist filmed white refrigerated trucks parked outside the hospital’s main building.

Residents on Thursday described floodwaters rising rapidly.

“The water rose to the ceiling of the second floor,” Kamban Wongpanya, 67, told AFP, explaining that she had to be rescued by boat.

Shopowner Chayaphol Promkleng thought at first that his business would be spared because flooding was “only ankle-deep.”