Officials in Indonesia and Sri Lanka battled on Wednesday to reach survivors of deadly flooding in remote, cut-off regions as the toll in the disaster that hit four countries topped 1,500.
In Indonesia, survivors expressed growing frustration about the slow pace of rescue efforts and aid delivery, as humanitarian groups warned the scale of the challenge was almost unprecedented, even in a country that has faced no shortage of natural disasters.
Monsoon rains paired with two tropical storm systems dumped record deluges across Sri Lanka, and parts of Indonesia’s Sumatra, southern Thailand and northern Malaysia last week.
In Indonesia, 770 were confirmed dead, the country’s disaster management agency said on Wednesday, revising the toll down from 812 it announced earlier in the day. Another 463 people are also missing.
Information is only trickling in as many regions remain physically cut off by flood damage, isolated by electricity and communications failures, or both.
“It’s very challenging logistically to respond,” said Ade Soekadis, executive director of aid group Mercy Corps Indonesia.
“The extent of the damage and the size of the affected area is really huge.” The group is hoping to send hygiene equipment and water, both from Jakarta and locally.
He said reports of food and water shortages were already “very concerning” and the situation will be “more problematic as time goes by”.
‘Like an earthquake’
At an evacuation centre in Pandan, 52-year-old Reinaro Waruwu told AFP he was “disappointed” in the government’s immediate response and the slow arrival of aid.
“Some waited a day and night before receiving help, so they couldn’t be saved,” he said, surrounded by evacuees sitting on mats on the floor in the hall-turned-shelter.
“I am frustrated, it doesn’t need to be said twice,” he added.
He described the floodwaters and landslides as unprecedented.
“It came like an earthquake … I thought ‘Well, if I am going to die, then so be it,’” he said, beginning to sob heavily.
Traumatised, he could not even eat on arrival, and food has only been patchily available, though vegetables arriving on Tuesday offered a “semblance of hope”, he said.
Nearby, Hamida Telaumbaunua, 37, described watching her entire kitchen swept away by floodwaters.
