Asia reels from deadly cyclones and monsoon rains

By Kocha Olarn and Ross Adkin, CNN

Bangkok (CNN) — Wassana Suthi spent last week trying to keep a nursing home running as the floodwaters rose around her in the southern Thai city of Hat Yai, cutting the home off from outside help, bar one helicopter dropping supplies on the roof.

Hat Yai city is one of hundreds of communities reeling from a combination of cyclonic storms and monsoon rains that have unleashed deadly flooding and landslides from Indonesia to Sri Lanka.

At least 1,250 people have been reported dead across the region, according to a CNN tally of national disaster agencies. Hundreds are still missing, and more than one million are displaced.

As rescuers dig through mud and debris and battle to restore links to communities cut off by the destruction, authorities say the death toll may rise.

Hat Yai, a major transport and trade hub in Thailand’s Songkhla province, saw floodwaters as high as eight feet surge through its streets. The deluge left Suthi, her husband and 10 staff and patients – some of whom are bed-ridden – trapped inside, fearing the worst.

“It rained so much that you couldn’t leave the house,” said Suthi.

Like others in Hat Yai, Suthi and her staff worked by candlelight for days to try and keep things running.

From the menacing, laden skies above, a Thai Army helicopter dropped food supplies onto their roof, their only contact with outsiders through the flooding ordeal.

When the waters finally receded over the weekend, they left behind streets slick with mud and with debris strewn everywhere.

“When I saw people on the street lining up to get food, some people were looking for their lost relatives, cars were left abandoned on the streets. It was almost like a movie scene like an apocalypse,” Suthi said.

She and her staff are kept busy cleaning the debris, but one main worry preoccupies her.

“I am now more concerned about liquid food for my patients. Since we have to feed them through the noses, it is so difficult to find them (the liquid supplies) in my area right now.”

Most of the 181 deaths Thailand has reported from the floods occurred in Hat Yai’s Songkhla province.

Hundreds missing in floodwaters

Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia have also reported massive impact from the rains.

In Indonesia, 744 people were killed and 551 remain missing after Cyclone Senyar caused catastrophic landslides and flooding on Sumatra, an island renowned for its lush rainforests, active volcanoes and a critically endangered orangutan population.

Almost a thousand miles away on the other side of the Indian Ocean, the island of Sri Lanka is reeling from another cyclone, Ditwah, which brought the country’s worst floods in a decade, Reuters reported.

Across the island famed for its beaches and popular with foreign tourists, the death toll has risen to 410 people, with 336 missing, according to the country’s Disaster Management Center.

Its Air Force had rescued nationals of Sri Lanka, India, Germany, Slovenia, the United Kingdom, South Africa, Poland, Belarus, Iran, Australia, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, the statement said.

Indian arch-rival Pakistan has also dispatched a team from its military to assist in rescue efforts in Sri Lanka, according to Islamabad’s National Disaster Management Authority.

Back in Thailand, Suthi is left to pick up the pieces and wonder how bad next season’s rains could get.

“It was never this severe. But this year, everyone is saying the same thing: it was like a tsunami.”

CNN’s Sophia Saifi in Islamabad and Esha Mitra in New Delhi contributed reporting.

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