Officials report hundreds dead and many missing as Cyclone Senyar’s rains trigger landslides and sweeping inundation across Sumatra and southern Thailand.
JAKARTA, INDONESIA — A week of torrential rain linked to Cyclone Senyar flooded towns and villages across Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand on Sunday, toppling hillsides, cutting highways and prompting mass evacuations as authorities raced to reach stranded communities on Sumatra and in southern Thailand.
The scale of damage made this one of the region’s deadliest flood events in recent years. Disaster officials said at least 300 people had been confirmed dead in Indonesia’s Sumatra provinces, with more bodies expected to be found as search teams push into areas blocked by mud and fallen trees. Thailand’s southern provinces also reported a sharp rise in fatalities after record rainfall submerged neighborhoods and businesses, while Malaysia sheltered thousands in relief centers as rivers spilled their banks. The death toll and the number of missing continued to shift through the day as water receded in some places and new reports arrived from remote districts.
In Indonesia, authorities said North Sumatra, West Sumatra and Aceh suffered the worst impacts as swollen rivers and hillside collapses swept through villages after midnight cloudbursts. Helicopters ferried food and tarps to isolated valleys where washed-out bridges severed the only road links. “The death toll is believed to be increasing, since many bodies are still missing, while many have not been reached,” National Disaster Management Agency chief Suharyanto said. In Thailand, residents in Hat Yai waded through streets that had turned into canals after the city logged its heaviest single-day rainfall in centuries, while power crews worked block by block to restore electricity. Malaysia’s Kelantan and Terengganu states shifted evacuees from schools to higher ground as rainfall bands lingered offshore and tides slowed river outflows.
Officials across the three countries described a rapidly evolving response. Indonesia deployed soldiers and police to clear roads, set up field kitchens and manage fuel deliveries for generators at clinics treating flood injuries and waterborne illnesses. Provincial leaders asked for more backhoes and trucks to dig out neighborhoods where mud piled chest-high. Thai emergency services reported dozens of landslides and slope failures across at least eight southern provinces, with search-and-rescue units shuttling by boat to bring out the elderly and people needing dialysis. Malaysia’s disaster agency said evacuees in several states dipped as skies brightened in places, but Kelantan’s shelters filled again overnight as feeder streams rose, underscoring the uneven recovery across the peninsula. Precise tallies of missing people remained fluid as phone networks blinked on and off with power restoration.
The storm’s path was unusual. Meteorologists tracked a compact system forming near the Strait of Malacca before it drew deep tropical moisture over land, wringing out rain repeatedly over Sumatra’s steep terrain and Thailand’s south. In Hat Yai and Songkhla province, gauges collected more than a foot of rain in a day, a threshold locals compared to historic cloudbursts. In West Sumatra, steep catchments that feed narrow rivers funneled water through market towns, flipping cars and scraping houses from their foundations. Malaysia’s weather service lifted continuous-rain alerts for some states on Saturday as the system weakened, but warned that saturated soils and evening high tides could keep flood risks elevated along the east coast. Transportation ministries in all three countries reported road closures on main corridors, with detours adding hours to deliveries of rice, drinking water and medicine.
Emergency managers outlined the next steps as recovery and identification moved in tandem with ongoing rescues. In Indonesia, teams planned aerial surveys of cut-off villages on Monday, backed by a bridge-repair unit to reopen key spans in North Sumatra’s interior. Police in West Sumatra said they would begin DNA collection at a temporary morgue in Padang Pariaman to speed identification of victims found in debris fields. Thailand’s interior ministry scheduled briefings with governors of the nine southern provinces to coordinate damage assessments for compensation claims and to map priority repairs to schools ahead of classes resuming next week. Malaysia’s national disaster council said relief centers would consolidate as waters recede, with engineers inspecting levees and pumps and planners reviewing drainage upgrades proposed after last year’s floods.
Along with grim numbers, the region’s daily rhythms have been reshaped. In Hat Yai, market vendors stacked rice sacks to keep them dry as small boats ferried shoppers to pickup points. A school principal in Narathiwat said teachers were making lists of displaced students and arranging temporary classrooms on upper floors. On Sumatra, volunteer radio operators relayed medical requests from villages where phone service remained out, while a nurse in West Aceh described treating cuts and infections with dwindling supplies until helicopter drops resumed. In Kelantan, evacuees at a sports hall passed bottled water down a human chain as a generator coughed back to life and ceiling fans began to turn. “We just want the road open so we can get back and clean,” said a shopkeeper in Kuala Krai, standing in ankle-deep water outside the shelter.
By Sunday evening, skies cleared in parts of southern Thailand and along Malaysia’s west coast, but severe flooding persisted inland on Sumatra and in pockets of Songkhla and Nakhon Si Thammarat. Authorities said updated casualty figures and a fuller picture of damage are expected Monday as teams reach more districts and confirm identities at hospitals and temporary morgues.
Author note: Last updated November 30, 2025.
