Flood-hit Sri Lanka and Indonesia have deployed military personnel on Monday to intensify search and rescue operations, along with ramping up aid efforts in several provinces, as the death toll nears 1000 across four Asian countries.
Relentless and widespread rainfall has inundated all of Sri Lanka and parts of Southeast Asian countries, including Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia’s Sumatra Island. Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto said on Monday that "the worst has hopefully passed.”
"The top priority of the government now is to rush aid to the affected places as soon as possible, with particular focus on several isolated villages," he added. The Indonesian president has been subjected to immense criticism at home following the death of 442 people, with several hundred reportedly missing, in the aftermath of weather-induced destruction.
Despite struggling to rush aid to affected areas, he has not called for international help like Sri Lanka, which has started receiving aid from neighbouring India. This is the deadliest natural disaster after the 2018 earthquake in Indonesia, which killed more than 2000 people in Sulawesi.
Also Read: Extreme weather in southeast Asia kills more than 250
Meanwhile, 340 people have been killed in Sri Lanka, confirmed officials on Monday, with many more still missing. President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has vowed to build it back after declaring a state of emergency amid rising floodwaters.
"We are facing the largest and most challenging natural disaster in our history," he said in a televised address to the nation. "Certainly, we will build a better nation than what existed before." Besides, the floods have also killed more than 176 people in southern Thailand, authorities said on Monday.
Also Read: Sumatra flood toll in Indonesia rises to 303
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