Frustration mounts in Indonesia and Sri Lanka amid aid workers face challenges in reaching flood survivors

Frustration mounts in Indonesia and Sri Lanka as officials struggle to reach survivors of deadly floods in remote and cut-off areas. The death toll in the four disaster-hit countries rises to 1,300, as reported by news agency AFP. Authorities are finding ways to reach survivors of flooding and landslides over the pace of the rescue effort and aid delivery. Groups facilitating aid say the challenge is unprecedented even for a country that is not facing any shortage of natural disasters.

The monsoon, accompanied by the two rare tropical storms, dumped record deluges across Sri Lanka and in parts of Indonesia's Sumatra, Thailand, and Malaysia last week. And in Indonesia, the disaster has claimed 755 lives, and over 650 people are reported missing. "It's very challenging logistically to respond," Ade Soekadis, executive director of aid group Mercy Corps Indonesia, told AFP.

'Like an earthquake'

At an evacuation centre in Padan, 52-year-old Reinaro Waruwu told AFP he was "disappointed" in the government's immediate response and the slow arrival of aid. "Some waited a day and night before receiving help, so they couldn't be saved," he said, surrounded by evacuees sitting on mats on the floor in the hall-turned-shelter. "I am frustrated, it doesn't need to be said twice. The response was not quick," he added.

Like many, he described the arrival of floodwaters and landslides as a disaster without precedent. "It came like an earthquake.. I thought 'Well, if I am going to die, then so be it,'" he said, beginning to sob heavily. He managed to escape the rising waters, but his neighbours were buried alive in debris. Traumatised, he could not even eat on arrival, and since then food has been patchily available, though vegetables arriving on Tuesday offered a "semblance of hope", he said.

Nearby, Hamida Telaumbaunua, 37, described watching her entire kitchen swept away by floodwaters. "My heart... this was the first time I experienced such a flood," she said. Her home was lost entirely, along with everything but the few possessions she took when she left. “It's hard to think about what lies ahead. Maybe as long as we're still here, it's okay, but later... I don't know what will happen.” The weather system that hit Indonesia also brought heavy rains to Thailand, killing at least 176 people, and Malaysia, where two people were killed.

(With agency inputs)