Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated, although access to many parts of those three provinces remains cut off, National Disaster agency head Lieutenant General T.N.I. Suharyanto said.
He told a news conference that a cloud seeding operation had begun in West Sumatra to reduce the rainfall, most of which had already subsided by Saturday (local time).
Novia, a resident of Pidie in Aceh, said the water in his house had receded “but the entire place is covered in mud”.
“Some of the items in the house are damaged or have fallen, and we haven’t been able to clean them yet,” the 30-year-old told AFP.
“We, the community, are working together to clean up the mud.”
Firda Yusra said he left his home with his wife and child to take shelter in a nearby mosque with about a thousand others.
“Here, we eat whatever is available,” he said.
Thailand clean-up
Water levels reached 3m in Songkhla province in southern Thailand and killed 162 people in one of the worst floods in a decade.
Workers at one hospital in hard-hit Hat Yai moved bodies into refrigerated trucks after the morgue exceeded capacity.
Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul apologised for the destruction caused by the floods.
“Whenever there are losses, deaths, or injuries, it’s always the prime minister’s fault,” he said on Saturday (local time).
“I will use all my expertise and dedication to improve the situation,” he said, announcing a two-week timeframe for the district’s clean-up.
The Thai Government rolled out relief measures for those affected by the flooding, including compensation of up to two million baht ($62,000) for households that lost family members.
More than 40,000 people have taken shelter in evacuation centres, according to flood relief operations centre spokesman Wanchana Sawasdee, although “some people have already returned home”.
Malaysia’s Foreign Affairs Ministry said more than 6000 Malaysians who were stranded by severe flooding in Hat Yai had been rescued.
Two people were killed in Malaysia after floods left stretches of northern Perlis state underwater.
Public criticism
Shop owner Rachane Remsringam picked through rubbish strewn between the aisles of his general goods store as floodwaters in southern Thailand receded, lamenting hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses.
There has been growing public criticism of Thailand’s flood response. Two local officials have been suspended over their alleged failures.
An MP from the Opposition People’s Party criticised the administration, saying it “wrongly estimated the situation” and made “errors in handling the flood crisis”.
The annual monsoon season, typically between June and September, often brings heavy rain, triggering landslides and flash floods.
A tropical storm has exacerbated conditions and the tolls in Indonesia and Thailand rank among the highest in floods in those countries in recent years.
Climate change has affected storm patterns, including the duration and intensity of the season, leading to heavier rainfall, flash flooding and stronger wind gusts.
“Since I was a child until now, at 30 years old, this is the worst flood that has ever occurred in our village,” Novia in Aceh said.
“There were floods before ... but it wasn’t like this.”
– Agence France-Presse
