Damaged roads, debris slow relief operations

Aceh Tamiang: Emergency crews were racing against time on Friday after last week’s catastrophic floods and landslides struck parts of Asia, killing more than 1,500 people.

Relief operations are underway, but the scale of need is overwhelming the capabilities of rescuers.

Authorities said 867 people were confirmed dead in Indonesia, 486 in Sri Lanka and 185 in Thailand, as well as three in Malaysia.

Many villages in Indonesia and Sri Lanka remained buried under mud and debris, with nearly 900 people still unaccounted for in both countries, while recovery was further along in Thailand and Malaysia.

As the waters recede, survivors find that the disaster has crippled their villages’ lifelines. Roads that once connected the cities and districts to the outside world are severed, leaving some areas accessible only by helicopter. Transmission towers collapsed under the weight of landslides, plunging communities into darkness and causing internet outages.

In Aceh Tamiang, the hardest-hit area in Aceh province, infrastructure is in ruins. Entire villages in the lush hills district lie submerged beneath a thick blanket of mud. More than 2,60,000 residents fled homes once on green farmland.

With wells contaminated and pipes shattered, the floodwaters have turned necessities into luxuries. Food is scarce, and the stench of decay hangs heavily in the air.

Helicopters began deploying to drop food, medicine, and blankets into Aceh Tamiang’s isolated pockets, where clean water, sanitation and shelter top the list of

urgent priorities.