Indonesian authorities said a region hit by floods that killed hundreds of people was facing food and medical shortages, with elephants stepping in to help clear the rubble on Monday.
Tropical storms and monsoon rains have battered Southeast and South Asia this month, triggering landslides and flash floods from the rainforests of western Sumatra in Indonesia to the highland plantations of Sri Lanka.
“Everything is lacking, especially medical personnel. We are short of doctors,” Muzakir Manaf, the governor of Indonesia’s Aceh province, told reporters late Sunday.
Indonesia’s National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) said 961 people have died and 293 are missing in Aceh, North Sumatra and West Sumatra provinces. More than one million people have been displaced, the agency said.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka’s military has deployed thousands of additional troops to aid recovery efforts after a devastating cyclone caused a wave of damage and killed 635 people.
In the heavily flooded Pidie Jaya area of ​​Indonesia’s Aceh province, four elephants at a nearby training center picked up large pieces of rubble with their trunks and helped move trapped vehicles.
“We brought four elephants to clear the rubble of community houses that were swept away by the floods,” Hadi Sofyan, head of the local conservation agency, told AFP.
“Our goal is to clear debris near residents’ houses so they can return home,” he said, adding that the elephants would be used for the rest of the week.
Heavy downpours and subsequent landslides in western Indonesia have injured at least 5,000 people and damaged infrastructure such as schools and hospitals.
AFP reporters said that in the city of Banda Aceh, people lined up to buy drinking water and fuel, and the prices of basic commodities such as eggs soared.
BNPB said late Sunday that the cost of reconstruction could be as high as 51.82 trillion rupees ($3.1 billion).
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In Sri Lanka, more than 2 million people (nearly 10% of the population) were affected by Cyclone Ditwa, the island’s worst storm this century.
Sri Lanka’s Disaster Management Center (DMC) said more heavy monsoon rains are expected this week, with rainfall exceeding five centimeters in many places. It issued warnings of further landslides.
Army Chief of Staff Lasantha Rodrigo said 38,500 security personnel have been deployed to facilitate recovery and clearance operations in flood-affected and landslide-hit areas, nearly double the number initially deployed.
“Since the disaster, security forces have rescued 31,116 people in distress,” Rodrigo said in a statement.
President Anura Kumara Dissanayake unveiled a recovery plan that provides victims 10 million rupees ($33,000) to buy land and rebuild in safer areas.
The government will also provide livelihood support and cash assistance to replace kitchen utensils and bedding and purchase food.
It’s unclear how much the bailout will cost the government, which is still reeling from an economic collapse in 2022 that left it depleted of foreign exchange reserves and unable to finance even essential imports.
Dissanayake said the government cannot fund reconstruction alone and called for foreign aid, including from the International Monetary Fund.
Seasonal monsoon rains are a feature of South and Southeast Asia, flooding rice paddies and nurturing the growth of other major crops.
However, climate change is making this phenomenon more unstable, unpredictable and deadly across the region.
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