HAT YAI Thailand and KUALA PERLIS Malaysia: Flood rescue teams in Thailand have mobilized drones and helicopters to deliver aid to residents stranded on rooftops Thursday, as the country’s worst floods in years claim 55 lives across nine southern provinces. Meanwhile, Indonesia’s death toll from a devastating tropical cyclone on the island of Sumatra has climbed to 61, with at least 100 people still missing as landslides and flooding continue to hamper rescue efforts.
Thailand’s military has intensified relief operations by deploying an aircraft carrier, 20 helicopters, and truck convoys carrying food, medicine, and dinghies to isolated communities. The government has issued urgent public appeals for boats and jet skis to reach people marooned for days by floodwaters reaching up to 2 metres (7 feet) high. In Hat Yai, the country’s fifth-largest city, floodwaters began receding Thursday, offering hope that access could improve and basic services be restored.
“Efforts to assist the public are continuing, but the flooding situation will be a long fight,” said Thai government spokesperson Siripong Angkasakulkiat. Nearly 3 million people have been affected across southern Thailand, with thousands sheltering in evacuation centres. Neighboring Malaysia has also been struck by similar flooding across seven states, resulting in two deaths and displacing more than 34,000 residents into shelters.
Cyclone Devastates Indonesian Island
On Sumatra, home to 60 million people, a tropical cyclone unleashed catastrophic floods and landslides, with power outages and damaged infrastructure severely hampering rescue operations. Kompas TV broadcast images of earth cascading down hillsides onto homes and water surging at heights exceeding 1 metre (3.5 feet), sweeping away debris and vegetation. Search and rescue footage showed rescue personnel extracting residents through fast-flowing water and transferring them onto orange rubber boats amid relentless rain.
Verified images from West Sumatra captured rescue teams transporting bodies through deep mud, while cars lay displaced and stacked atop one another after being swept away by torrential floodwaters. Meteorologists attribute the extreme Southeast Asian weather to the interaction of two active systems: Typhoon Koto in the Philippines and the unusual formation of Cyclone Senyar in the Malacca Strait. Scientists warn that global warming amplifies such extreme events, as elevated sea surface temperatures supercharge tropical storms.
Hat Yai Faces Historic Rainfall
Thailand’s army engineering corps and 2,000 civil defence personnel arrived Thursday in Hat Yai, where helicopters were delivering supplies to hospitals and victims still trapped on rooftops. The city has endured its heaviest rainfall in 15 years, with 335 mm (13 inches) recorded Friday—the highest single-day rainfall in 300 years. Aerial footage revealed miles of roads submerged beneath brown water, with heavy-duty trucks navigating wide thoroughfares past abandoned vehicles as residents waded through knee-deep waters.
“I’m walking back to my grandmother because she hadn’t had food for two or three days. I heard she finally received some food, but I’m still worried,” said 18-year-old Natawat Chermmontri moments before swimming across a flooded road.
Malaysian authorities issued new tropical storm warnings Thursday through the weekend, anticipating strong winds, rough seas, and continuous heavy rain across seven states. Container lorries transported stranded Malaysian nationals back across the border from Thailand, as smaller vehicles could not traverse the floodwaters. Authorities reported approximately 500 nationals still stranded in Hat Yai, a popular tourist destination.
At an evacuation centre in Perlis state, 73-year-old Gon Qasim described being trapped in her home amid a paddy field. “The water was like the ocean,” she said. In Thailand, police assisted 1,000 stranded foreigners, relocating them to shelters at a university facility.
At an indoor basketball arena converted into an evacuation centre, 70-year-old Kritchawat Sothiananthakul tearfully recounted the relentless water rising in his Hat Yai home as he waited for rescue with his dog. “We had to climb down from the roof, get into the boat. I needed to carry it and then get onto a truck. We had to leave everything because everything was submerged.”
The current flooding follows a succession of deadly typhoons and heavy monsoon rains that have battered the Philippines and Vietnam, triggering widespread devastation across the region. WNN continues to monitor the humanitarian crisis as rescue operations remain ongoing in both Thailand and Indonesia.
-Thomas Suen and Mandy Leong
