Damaged roads and debris slow relief operations after deadly floods in
Asia
[December 05, 2025]
By BINSAR BAKKARA and NINIEK KARMINI
ACEH TAMIANG, Indonesia (AP) — 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.
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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.”
___
Karmini reported from Jakarta. Krishan Francis in Colombo, Sri
Lanka, contributed reporting.
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