Due to torrential rains, parts of Sri Lanka and Indonesia’s Sumatra, southern Thailand and northern Malaysia have been submerged in water.
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, who arrived in North Sumatra on Monday, said the government’s priority was “how to immediately send the necessary aid”.
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“There are many isolated villages that, God willing, we can reach,” Prabowo said. He said the government was deploying helicopters and aircraft to assist in relief efforts.
Prabowo is under increasing pressure to declare a national emergency in response to floods and landslides that have killed at least 442 people, with hundreds missing.
Unlike his Sri Lankan counterpart, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, Prabowo has so far avoided publicly calling for international aid.
The Indonesian government has sent two hospital ships and three warships to assist in some of the areas hardest hit by the floods, where many roads are still impassable.
In the village of Sungai Nyalo, about 100 km (62 miles) from Padang, the capital of West Sumatra, floodwaters had largely receded on Sunday, leaving homes, vehicles and crops submerged in thick brown mud.
“Most of the villagers chose to stay here; they didn’t want to leave their homes behind,” 55-year-old Idris, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, told AFP news agency.
Sri Lanka wants help
Meanwhile, in Sri Lanka, the government has called for international aid and is using military helicopters to reach people stranded by floods and landslides caused by Cyclone Ditvaah.
Sri Lanka’s disaster agency said on Sunday that at least 334 people had been killed, while many were still missing.
A helicopter pilot died tragically while making an emergency landing during a mission to aid flood-hit communities in Lunuwila, north of Colombo, the Sri Lankan Air Force said in a post on Facebook on Monday.
The extent of the damage in the worst-hit central region was revealed as rescue workers cleared roads blocked by fallen trees and landslides, officials said.
President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who declared a state of emergency to deal with the disaster, promised to rebuild.
“We are facing the largest and most challenging natural disaster in our history,” Dissanayake said in an address to the nation.
“Certainly, we will build a better nation than before.”
Death toll rises in southern Thailand
Thai officials said on Monday that the death toll from flooding in the country’s south has reached at least 176 people.
The government has launched relief measures, but public criticism of the flood response is growing and two local officials have been suspended over their alleged failures, according to AFP.
Across the border in Malaysia, where heavy rains also left widespread land submerged in Perlis state, two people died.
A year of deadly floods across Asia
This week’s floods and landslides are the latest extreme weather events to ravage Southeast Asian countries in recent weeks, including two typhoons that hit the Philippines within a week of each other last month, killing at least 242 people.
Flooding in Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia was made worse by a rare tropical storm that brought particularly heavy rains on the island of Sumatra.
Climate change is increasing the intensity and frequency of storms and causing more heavy rainfall events as the warmer atmosphere holds more moisture.
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