Thursday, 27 November 2025
Thursday, 27 November 2025
Flood rescue teams in Thailand readied drones to deliver aid on Thursday and helicopters dropped supplies to people marooned on rooftops as waters receded, raising hope for more ground evacuations.
Meanwhile, the death toll in the neighbouring Indonesian island of Sumatra from cyclone havoc rose to 46.
Severe floods after a week of heavy rain have killed at least 33 people in Thailand and two in Malaysia, with tens of thousands huddling in evacuation centres, some after being cut off for days by waters as much as 2 metres (7 feet) high.
"It's a race against time," Thai government spokesperson Siripong Angkasakulkiat told Nation TV, adding that rescue teams were preparing drones to deliver food aid, relying on satellite internet in the face of telecoms outages.
"We have to help them out," he added.
Thailand has pushed relief efforts into higher gear after the military drafted in at least 20 helicopters, planes and convoys of trucks to deliver food, medicine and small boats on Wednesday, and issued a public appeal for boats and jet skis.
MILITARY REINFORCEMENTS ARRIVE
Army engineering corps with specialist vehicles and 2,000 members of the civil defence corps arrived on Thursday in Hat Yai, the worst-affected city, where helicopters were delivering food to hospitals and victims remained stuck on rooftops.
The floods affected nearly 3 million people in nine southern Thai provinces, authorities said. In Hat Yai, Thailand's fifth-largest city, thousands have been stranded by record rainfall, which stood at 335 mm (13 inches) on Friday, its highest in a single day for 300 years.
Aerial footage under grey skies over Hat Yai showed miles of roads engulfed by brown water, with heavy-duty trucks crawling along wide thoroughfares past abandoned cars and trucks, as groups of people waded slowly through knee-deep water.
"I’m walking back to my grandmother because she hadn’t had food for two or three days," said Natawat Chermmontri, 18. "I heard she finally received some food, but I’m still worried."
TROPICAL CYCLONE DEVASTATES INDONESIAN ISLAND
On Sumatra, an Indonesian island of 60 million people, a tropical cyclone unleashed floods and landslides that have killed at least 46 people, with 10 missing. Power outages and damaged bridges and homes hampered rescue efforts, the disaster agency said.
Kompas TV showed images of earth sliding down a hillside to pile up in front of homes, while gushing waters higher than 1 metre (3.5 feet) swept along debris and the branches of trees.
People were carried out of their homes through fast-flowing water and helped onto orange rubber boats in the teeming rain, video from the search and rescue agency showed.
Meteorologists say current extremes of weather in Southeast Asia could stem from the interaction of two active systems, Typhoon Koto in the Philippines and the unusual formation of Cyclone Senyar in the Malacca Strait.
Global warming can bring more frequent extreme events as higher sea surface temperatures supercharge tropical storms.
The most recent floods follow a series of deadly typhoons and heavy monsoon rains that have lashed the Philippines and Vietnam and swelled floods elsewhere.
TROPICAL STORM WARNING
Waters were receding in Malaysia, where floods have hit seven states, but authorities issued new warnings on Thursday of a tropical storm until the weekend, with strong winds, rough seas and heavy, continuous rain that could affect seven states.
Malaysia has moved more than 34,000 people to evacuation centres and authorities said about 500 nationals were still stranded in Hat Yai, also a tourist destination in Thailand.
Container lorries were used to bring home some Malaysians from Thailand, the foreign minister said, as smaller vehicles were unable to traverse the floodwaters.
In the smallest state of Perlis, Gon Qasim said rising waters trapped her in her home in the middle of a paddy field. "The water was like the ocean," the 73-year-old evacuee said.
In Thailand, police said they were assisting 1,000 stranded foreigners, among them Malaysians and Singaporeans, moving them to shelters at a university.
At an indoor basketball arena that was turned into an evacuation centre, a tearful Kritchawat Sothiananthakul, 70, described the inexorable rise of waters in his Hat Yai home, as he waited with his dog to be rescued.
"We had to climb down from the roof, get into the boat," he said, stroking the animal while sitting on a mat in a makeshift evacuation centre in a sports hall.
"I needed to carry it and then get onto a truck... We had to leave everything because everything was submerged."
