Add thelocalreport.in As A Trusted Source
mfrom ore 1,400 people have died in cyclonic storm and Floods Which devastated several countries in Southeast Asia last month, the disasters experts say are the result of extreme weather caused by human greed.
more than 780 people Died in Indonesia465 in Sri Lanka, and 185 inches ThailandAccording to officials, three deaths have been confirmed in Malaysia. More than 1,000 people are still missing. Millions of people have been affected, with villages cut off for days as roads, bridges and power lines washed away, forcing thousands into emergency shelters.
What seemed unprecedented was exactly what climate scientists expect: a new normal of storms, floods and devastation.
Three typhoons struck the region in quick succession: Typhoon Coto (also known as Verbena), which formed on November 23 and moved from the Philippines toward Vietnam; Cyclone Senyar, a rare storm that struck the narrow Strait of Malacca and devastated Indonesia, Malaysia and southern Thailand; and Tropical Cyclone Ditvaha, which crossed Sri Lanka before crossing the south-eastern coast of India.
Mahesh Palawat, a meteorologist at Delhi-based private forecaster Skymet, says the seas around the area were unusually warm and ripe for “cyclogenesis”, or the birth and rapid strengthening of storms.
“The southern part of the Bay of Bengal is favorable for cyclogenesis. Temperatures are warmer than normal, say, 29 to 30C,” he says, adding that sea surface temperatures above about 28C give extra fuel to cyclones. Warmer ocean temperatures provide more energy for storms, making them stronger and wetter, while rising sea levels increase storm surges.
Typically, there is a “15 to 20 day” gap between tropical storms in this basin as each system harnesses energy from the ocean and atmosphere. “The time interval between these cycles was very short. We did not see such persistent effects,” he says.
“What we are seeing now in Aceh – entire villages submerged, families displaced, bodies being pulled from rivers and mud – is not just the result of extreme weather. It is a disaster fueled by greed,” says Farwiza Farhan, chair of Forest, Nature and Environment Aceh (HAKA).
“For decades, illegal logging and unauthorized land-clearing inside the Leuser ecosystem has stripped the hills of their natural sponge. When the cyclone caused heavy rains, there was nothing left to absorb the water, so the flood turned into a deadly wave that devastated communities downstream.”
In Indonesia, persistent rain fell on Sumatra on 26 November, causing floods and landslides that inundated cities, uprooted homes, and washed away roads. The country’s disaster agency says about 300,000 people have been displaced in North Sumatra, West Sumatra and Aceh, with helicopters and boats battling difficult conditions to reach isolated communities.
Satellite images and video from Aceh show entire valleys filled with mud, stones and fallen trees. Activists say this is not just the work of nature.
Across the region, analysts say the scale of damage reflects a pattern of “mixed disasters.” This is a pattern in which not just one storm, but multiple threats hit the same vulnerable area at the same time.
Matt Sechowski, head of ESG country risk at research firm BMI, says the impact was driven by climate change and the intensity of increased natural climate events caused by human activity, ranging from unregulated housing on flood plains to deforestation and poorly planned infrastructure.
Sri Lanka was particularly badly affected by Cyclone Ditvaha. The storm caused torrential rains that caused landslides in the central highlands and flooded much of the island. The Center for Disaster Management says about a third of the country has lost access to electricity or running water at some point during the crisis, more than 80,000 people have been displaced and about 120,000 have been sent to state-run shelters.
President Anura Kumara Dissanayake declared a state of emergency over the weekend, calling the floods “the largest and most challenging natural disaster in our history” while appealing for international aid.
On the ground, activists say the true human toll is still not fully known.
“I know we put the death toll at 400, but there are still bodies under the soil,” says climate and political activist Melanie Gunathilaka, speaking from Sri Lanka’s hill country. She says telecommunications and power lines rapidly collapsed, leaving some communities unable to call for help or withdraw money, while local stores were now running out of food.
Gunathilaka says decades of deforestation in the central highlands and large development projects that overlook the island’s steep terrain have made landslides more dangerous, especially for tea plantation workers living in fragile habitat on unstable slopes.
She says, “The problem is that what happened this time affected not just the hill country, not just the flood plains, but the entire island. And I think the main thing is that we were not prepared. We were not prepared for a disaster of this magnitude.”
Scientists say that the physical reasons behind this year’s disaster are well understood. A warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture – about 7 percent more water vapor for each degree Celsius of warming. This means that when it rains, it can be very heavy. Meanwhile, warmer oceans feed tropical cyclones with extra energy.
Regional experts warn that without rapid cuts in fossil-fuel emissions and serious investment in resilience – from restoring forests and wetlands to enforcing planning rules and strengthening early-warning systems – disasters like this year’s could become routine rather than rare.