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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Monsoon rains paired with two tropical storm systems dumped record deluges across Sri Lanka, and parts of Indonesia\u2019s Sumatra, southern Thailand and northern Malaysia last week.<\/p>\n
In Indonesia, 770 were confirmed dead, the country\u2019s disaster management agency said on Wednesday, revising the toll down from 812 it announced earlier in the day. Another 463 people are also missing.<\/p>\n
Information is only trickling in as many regions remain physically cut off by flood damage, isolated by electricity and communications failures, or both.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very challenging logistically to respond,\u201d said Ade Soekadis, executive director of aid group Mercy Corps Indonesia.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe extent of the damage and the size of the affected area is really huge.\u201d The group is hoping to send hygiene equipment and water, both from Jakarta and locally.<\/p>\n
He said reports of food and water shortages were already \u201cvery concerning\u201d and the situation will be \u201cmore problematic as time goes by\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u2018Like an earthquake\u2019
\nAt an evacuation centre in Pandan, 52-year-old Reinaro Waruwu told AFP he was \u201cdisappointed\u201d in the government\u2019s immediate response and the slow arrival of aid.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome waited a day and night before receiving help, so they couldn\u2019t be saved,\u201d he said, surrounded by evacuees sitting on mats on the floor in the hall-turned-shelter.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am frustrated, it doesn\u2019t need to be said twice,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
He described the floodwaters and landslides as unprecedented.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt came like an earthquake \u2026 I thought \u2018Well, if I am going to die, then so be it,\u2019\u201d he said, beginning to sob heavily.<\/p>\n
Traumatised, he could not even eat on arrival, and food has only been patchily available, though vegetables arriving on Tuesday offered a \u201csemblance of hope\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n
Nearby, Hamida Telaumbaunua, 37, described watching her entire kitchen swept away by floodwaters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13835,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13834"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13834\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13836,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13834\/revisions\/13836"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}