SIBOLGA, Indonesia: Forecasts of fresh rain on Thursday (Dec 4) raised fears of more damage in flood-hit Indonesia and Sri Lanka, after earlier deluges killed more than 1,500 people in four countries.
In Indonesia, the meteorological agency warned the three hardest-hit provinces on the island of Sumatra will see “moderate to heavy” rain between Thursday and Friday.
The downpour started overnight, but so far has not reached near the intensity that led to destructive flash-flooding and landslides last week.
The toll on Thursday stood at 776, revised down slightly from a day earlier as information arrives from remote, inaccessible areas.
More than 560 people remain missing, with patchy communications and electricity making it hard to confirm whereabouts.
At a shelter in Pandan in North Sumatra, 54-year-old Sabandi told AFP she was still traumatised by the floods that swept feet of mud into her home last week.
“We feel scared,” she said of the forecast.
“We are afraid that if it rains suddenly, the flood will come again.”
She waited out the floods on her roof for two days, stranded without food or water, before she could evacuate.
“My house was filled with mud. The mud was so high that we couldn’t enter the house,” she added.
While across Asia seasonal monsoons bring rainfall that farmers depend on, climate change is making the phenomenon more erratic, unpredictable and deadly across the region.
Two separate weather systems dumped massive rainfall on all of Sri Lanka, Sumatra, parts of southern Thailand and northern Malaysia last week.
The scale of the disaster has made relief efforts challenging.
In Indonesia’s Banda Aceh, an AFP reporter said the line for fuel at one gas station extended 4km.
Elsewhere, survivors reported food shortages, price gouging and looting.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/indonesia-sri-lanka-rain-forecasts-raise-fears-flood-5543171
