At least 1,250 people dead: What caused the devastating Asia floods?

Tropical storms and dense rainfall person caused devastating flooding and landslides crossed overmuch of South and Southeast Asia successful caller days, with officials saying much than 1,250 radical person been killed crossed Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand unsocial and that galore others are inactive missing.

Two cyclones and a typhoon, each antithetic kinds of tropical storms, contributed to the disaster, which near towns and villages buried nether mud crossed Sri Lanka, Thailand and the Indonesian land of Sumatra, with betterment efforts expected to proceed for weeks.

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Sri Lanka has declared a authorities of exigency aft the flooding and landslides, which displaced much than 1.1 cardinal people. The state is facing a “humanitarian situation of historical proportions”, Sampath Kotuwegoda, the manager wide of the Disaster Management Centre, told Al Jazeera.

Jessica Washington, reporting from Indonesia, the worst deed by the floods, said she saw landslides everyplace successful North Sumatra province. “I person covered earthy disasters, and usually, determination is an country wherever landslides are contained, but this time, landslides person affected each the villages that we saw arsenic we made our mode here,” she said from North Tapanuli.

So what caused the grounds floods and landslides, and what tin beryllium done to mitigate aboriginal earthy disasters?

What caused the floods and landslides?

As reports of the devastating floods began to spread, online hunt trends showed that radical were funny successful what was driving the utmost upwind that caused immoderate of the worst disasters successful decades successful aggregate countries simultaneously.

Communities crossed South and Southeast Asia, successful countries including Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines, person each been inundated successful caller days, pursuing weeks of dense rains and deadly tropical storms across the region.

The astir caller floods were made worse successful immoderate countries by tropical storms, including Typhoon Koto, which caused terrible flash floods and landslides successful the Philippines, arsenic good arsenic Cyclone Senyar, which deed Indonesia’s bluish Sumatra severely, and Cyclone Ditwah, which caused devastation successful Sri Lanka.

One communal thread crossed the portion is that communities were struggling to respond to the sheer measurement of rainfall, which caused knock-on problems, including landslides, says Steve Turton, an adjunct prof of biology geography astatine Central Queensland University successful Australia.

“All astir the satellite wherever we get these tropical systems, whether you telephone them typhoons oregon hurricanes oregon tropical cyclones, they are producing much rainfall than they’ve ever produced,” Turton told Al Jazeera. “And that’s due to the fact that of clime change.”

While Cyclone Senyar, Cyclone Ditwah and Typhoon Koto were not categorised arsenic terrible storms owed to their upwind speeds, says Turton, they each produced “a batch of rain”.

“And that’s owed to the warming of the ambiance and the warming of the ocean, that’s feeding these rainstorms,” helium added.

“Warmer oceans substance stronger rainfall bands astir tropical cyclones, and a warmer ambiance holds much moisture and releases it successful much aggravated bursts,” Roxy Matthew Koll, a clime idiosyncratic astatine the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, explained.

It is simply a improvement called La Nina, which is simply a earthy clime signifier successful which the Pacific Ocean becomes cooler than accustomed successful the eastbound and warmer successful the west, causing winds to fortify and propulsion much lukewarm h2o and moisture towards Asia.

This signifier loads the ambiance with other moisture implicit Asia that often leads to heavier rainfall and higher flood risk, Koll told Al Jazeera.

While the interaction of accrued rainfall is good understood, Turton notes that erstwhile it comes to different antithetic aspects astir this past week’s storms, including however Cyclone Senyar and Typhoon Koto whitethorn person interacted, it volition beryllium indispensable to hold for much circumstantial research, known arsenic attribution studies, to beryllium conducted.

One caller attribution study from the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment utilizing the Imperial College Storm Model (IRIS) has already recovered that clime alteration accrued the magnitude of eyewall rainfall from Typhoon Fung-wong, which made landfall successful the Philippines past month, by an estimated 10.5 percent.

A antheral crosses a muddy thoroughfare wherever cars piled up aft being swept distant successful floods brought connected by Typhoon Kalmaegi successful Bacayan, Cebu City, Philippines, connected November 5, 2025 [Eloisa Lopez/Reuters]

What tin beryllium done to respond?

While visiting disaster-affected communities successful North Sumatra connected Monday, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto said clime alteration is simply a occupation that Indonesians volition request to “confront”.

“Regional administrations indispensable besides beryllium prepared to look the impacts of clime change,” helium said.

Shweta Narayan, run pb astatine Global Climate and Health Alliance, a consortium of wellness professionals and civilian nine organisations astir the world, said the governments and cities person “failed to hole astatine each to woody with the consequences of the utmost upwind events”.

“There is simply a monolithic disconnect betwixt the world and the sheer deliberate ignorance among policymakers,” she said. “And the terms is being paid by people.”

After decades of warnings from clime scientists, galore governments and clime alteration activists are anxious to determination to much applicable responses to assistance trim the severity of existent and aboriginal clime change-induced disasters arsenic overmuch arsenic possible.

Climate activistic and founding manager of the Satat Sampada Climate Foundation, Harjeet Singh, told Al Jazeera that the subject connected attributing idiosyncratic disasters to clime alteration is settled, and that it is present clip to determination connected to responding.

“People crossed South and Southeast Asia are surviving the data,” helium said, noting that the grounds should present pb to accountability.

“We don’t request to hold for event-by-event attribution to cognize that clime alteration is expanding the standard and frequence of these impacts,” helium said.

“Countries that grew affluent by burning fossil fuels person a ineligible and motivation work to urgently present grant-based finance” to assistance countries respond, Singh added.

The latest storms came little than a week aft the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30) ended successful Brazil, without delivering the responses that countries experiencing clime alteration harms person repeatedly called for.

People wade done a flooded roadworthy aft dense rainfall successful a suburb of Colombo, Sri Lanka, connected Sunday [Chamila Karunarathne/EPA]

This includes grant-based funding to assistance them respond to progressively costly disasters, alternatively than loans, which further lend to their debts, says Singh, arsenic good arsenic much urgent cuts to fossil substance emissions.

Yet, contempt facing important uphill battles, countries experiencing the worst of climate, including land nations, are continuing to hunt for ways to code the crisis.

Earlier this year, the world’s apical court, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), ruled that states indispensable enactment urgently to code the “existential threat” of clime alteration by cooperating to chopped emissions, pursuing done connected planetary clime agreements, and protecting susceptible populations and ecosystems from harm.

“Failure of a authorities to instrumentality due enactment to support the clime strategy … whitethorn represent an internationally wrongful act,” said ICJ President Yuji Iwasawa, successful effect to the lawsuit which was brought to the tribunal by processing countries led by Vanuatu.

The advisory sentiment could besides power the increasing fig of clime alteration lawsuits making their mode done courts astir the world.

Those ineligible challenges see a lawsuit precocious launched by survivors of the 2021 Super Typhoon Odette successful the Philippines, who announced past period that they are suing British lipid elephantine Shell for its relation successful causing the clime situation done courts successful the United Kingdom.

On Monday, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies called for an “urgent request for stronger ineligible and argumentation frameworks to support radical successful disasters”.

“These floods are a stark reminder that climate-driven disasters are becoming the caller normal, and concern successful resilience and preparedness is critical,” Alexander Matheou, IFRC manager for the Asia Pacific region, said successful a statement.

People wade done a flooded country successful Hat Yai district, affected by dense rainfall, which has impacted respective provinces successful confederate Thailand [Karit Chaui-aksorn/Reuters]