Damaged roads and debris slow relief operations after deadly floods in Asia

This aerial photo taken using a drone shows an area devastated by flash flood in Aceh Tamiang, on Sumatra Island, Indonesia, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Binsar Bakkara)

ACEH TAMIANG, Indonesia — 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 260,000 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. For many, survival hinges on the speed of aid.

Trucks carrying relief supplies crawl along roads connecting North Sumatra’s Medan city to Aceh Tamiang, which reopened almost a week after the disaster, but distribution is slowed by debris on the roads, said National Disaster Management Agency’s spokesperson Abdul Muhari.

Television reports showed widespread devastation in Aceh Tamiang after flash floods tore through the area, with cars overturned and homes badly damaged. Animal carcasses are scattered among the debris.

Two hospitals and 15 community health centers stood idle. Medical teams improvised in crowded shelters, battling shortages of medicine and staff as waterborne diseases loom.

On a battered bridge spanning the swollen Tamiang River, families cling to survival under makeshift tarpaulins. Children shiver in damp clothes. A survivor there, Vira, broke down in tears, “We have nothing left,” she cried.

“We drank floodwater from discarded bottles and scavenged for scraps ... whatever the current carried to us,” Vira, who goes by a single name, said in a television interview on Thursday.

Another resident, Angga, recounted how he and 13 relatives and neighbors clung to the tin roof of a shattered building for four nights.

“Even now, eight days after the floods erased our village, no aid has reached us — no helicopters, no rescue teams,” Angga said. “We had no choice but to drink the very water that destroyed our homes.”

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Karmini reported from Jakarta. Krishan Francis in Colombo, Sri Lanka, contributed reporting.

Binsar Bakkara And Niniek Karmini, The Associated Press