{"id":292683,"date":"2025-12-01T07:50:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T07:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/292683\/"},"modified":"2025-12-01T07:50:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T07:50:10","slug":"how-cyclones-and-monsoon-rains-combined-to-devastate-parts-of-asia-visual-guide-extreme-weather","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/292683\/","title":{"rendered":"How cyclones and monsoon rains combined to devastate parts of Asia \u2013 visual guide | Extreme weather"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tropical cyclones have combined with heavy monsoon rains to lay waste to swathes of Asia, killing close to 1,000 people and leaving many more homeless<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Parts of the Indonesian archipelago have been particularly hard hit, with the death toll reaching 442<\/a> following flooding that began about a week ago, a number that is expected to rise. Nearly 300,000 people have been displaced and nearly 3,000 houses damaged, including 827 that were flattened or swept away.<\/p>\n

loop sumatra<\/a><\/p>\n

In the Indonesian island of Sumatra, videos circulating on social media showed people scrambling across crumbling barricades, flooded roads and broken glass to get their hands on food, medicine and fuel. Some were wading through waist-deep floodwaters to reach damaged convenience stores.<\/p>\n

A residents cleans mud from a house at a flood-affected village in the Meureudu area of Pidie Jaya, Aceh, in Indonesia, on 28 November. Photograph: Hotli Simanjuntak\/EPA<\/p>\n

Police spokesperson Ferry Walintukan said regional police had been deployed to restore order. \u201cThe looting happened before logistical aid arrived,\u201d Walintukan said. \u201c[Residents] didn\u2019t know that aid would come and were worried they would starve.\u201d<\/p>\n

The floods in Indonesia\u2019s Aceh province washed away part of a bridge in Pidie Jaya district on Sunday. Photograph: Chaideer Mahyuddin\/AFP\/Getty ImagesRescuers brave floodwaters by holding a rope in their effort to evacuate residents trapped in their houses in Padang, West Sumatra province on 27 November. Photograph: Rezan Soleh\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

In Sri Lanka, the death toll from floods and landslides triggered by Cyclone Ditwah rose sharply to 334 on Sunday, Sri Lanka\u2019s disaster agency said, with nearly 400 still missing.<\/p>\n

The Disaster Management Centre (DMC) said more than 1.3 million people across the country had been affected by the record rains.<\/p>\n

It is the worst natural disaster to hit Sri Lanka in two decades<\/a>, and officials said the extent of damage in the worst-affected central region was only just being revealed as relief workers cleared roads blocked by fallen trees and mudslides.<\/p>\n

loop sri lanka<\/a><\/p>\n

The heavy rains that often sweep through the region at this time of year have been exacerbated by the rare formation of two tropical cyclones \u2013 Koto and Senyar \u2013 which have helped fuel the rains by bringing in more moist, warm air.<\/p>\n

Indonesia\u2019s meteorology agency said the formation of Senyar in the Strait of Malacca was a \u201crare<\/a>\u201d event, although one that had become more frequent in the past five years. \u201cIndonesia\u2019s location near the equator theoretically makes it less prone to the formation or passage of tropical cyclones,\u201d said Andri Ramdhani at the Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG). Areas very close to the Equator usually lack the Coriolis force that enables storms to develop.<\/p>\n

An elderly man is carried through a flooded street in Wellampitiya on the outskirts of Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Sunday. Photograph: Ishara S. Kodikara\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

More broadly, the climate crisis has affected storm patterns, including the duration and intensity of the season, leading to heavier rainfall, flash flooding and stronger wind gusts.<\/p>\n

The devastation in Sri Lanka was caused by cyclone Ditwah, which formed over the Bay of Bengal and made landfall on Wednesday, combining with the north-east monsoon season to bring disastrous rains.<\/p>\n

An aerial view shows houses partially submerged in floodwaters after heavy rainfall in Kaduwela on the outskirts of Colombo on 29 November. Photograph: AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Low-lying areas flooded over the weekend, prompting authorities to issue evacuation orders for those living along the banks of the Kelani River, which flows through Colombo into the Indian Ocean.<\/p>\n

Thousands of police and military personnel are distributing food, clearing roads and moving trapped families to safety. Nearly 148,000 people have been displaced from their homes and are housed in temporary shelters.<\/p>\n

Flood victims wade through a submerged area of Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Sunday. Photograph: Eranga Jayawardena\/AP<\/p>\n

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who declared a state of emergency to deal with the disaster, vowed to build back with international support. \u201cWe are facing the largest and most challenging natural disaster in our history,\u201d he said in an address to the nation. \u201cCertainly, we will build a better nation than what existed before.\u201d<\/p>\n

The rains have subsided across Sri Lanka but low-lying areas of the capital, Colombo, remained flooded on Sunday, sparking a major relief operation.<\/p>\n

In Thailand, the ministry of public health reported the death toll from flooding in southern Thailand<\/a> at 170 on Sunday, following some of the worst flooding in a decade.<\/p>\n

Two youths look at a car surrounded by high floodwaters in Hat Yai in Thailand\u2019s southern Songkhla province on 26 November. Photograph: Arnun Chonmahatrakool\/THAI NEWS PIX\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Songkhla Province had the highest number of fatalities at 131. Hat Yai, the largest city in Songkhla, received 372mm (14.6in) of rain on 21 November, its highest single-day tally in 300 years, amid days of heavy downpours.<\/p>\n

data<\/a><\/p>\n

Authorities have been working to deliver aid, clear the damage, and offer compensation of up to two million baht ($62,000) for households that have lost family members. But there has been growing public criticism of Thailand\u2019s flood response, and two local officials have been suspended over their alleged failures.<\/p>\n

The rains sent by Koto killed three people in Vietnam, authorities said on Sunday, after two boats sank amid strong winds and high seas along the flood-hit central coast.<\/p>\n

An aerial view of Xuan Dai Bay after floods swept through the area on 25 November in Dak Lak province, Vietnam. Photograph: Thanh Hue\/Getty ImagesPeople wade through floodwater in Nha Trang, Khanh Hoa province, Vietnam, on 20 November. Photograph: EPA<\/p>\n

Heavy rains have lashed central areas of Vietnam in recent weeks, flooding historic sites and popular holiday destinations and causing hundreds of millions of dollars in damage.<\/p>\n

Vietnam\u2019s weather bureau has forecast rains of up to 150mm (6in) on Tuesday and Wednesday in regions that have only just recovered from historic floods.<\/p>\n

Natural disasters have left more than 400 people dead or missing this year in Vietnam and caused more than $3bn in damage, according to the national statistics office.<\/p>\n

In Malaysia, two people were killed after floods left stretches of northern Perlis state underwater. There are still about 18,700 people in evacuation centres, according to the country\u2019s national disaster management agency.<\/p>\n

With Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tropical cyclones have combined with heavy monsoon rains to lay waste to swathes of Asia, killing close to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292684,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-292683","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292683\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}