Southeast Asia is experiencing massive flooding, with dozens dead and millions evacuated. Since late November 2025, countries in Southeast Asia have been experiencing a major crisis due to torrential rains, a tropical storm, and subsequent floods and landslides. Areas of Indonesia (especially the island of Sumatra), southern Thailand, and northern Malaysia are affected. The death toll in Central Vietnam, caused by floods, flash floods, and landslides following prolonged rainfall, has risen to 55 by November 22, 2025.
In Indonesia, the island of Sumatra has been one of the hardest-hit areas: according to authorities, the death toll has reached 61 as of November 27. Search and rescue operations are ongoing in several areas, particularly in the western part of the island, but access to some villages remains difficult due to destroyed roads, landslides, and disruptions to communications and power supplies. In the provinces of Sumatra, according to regional authorities, dozens of homes were flooded, and thousands of people were forced to evacuate.
AFP
Thailand has been severely impacted by flooding in the south of the country: provinces, including the one where Hat Yai is located, recorded the highest single-day rainfall in 300 years—up to 335 mm. According to official figures as of November 26, 33 people have died in the region, and more than 10,000 people have been evacuated. Government agencies declared a state of emergency in Songkhla Province (in southern Thailand). Evacuations, including those in critical condition, were carried out using helicopters, boats, all-terrain vehicles, and a naval ship.
In Malaysia, severe flooding has engulfed the northern states bordering Thailand; authorities have already begun evacuating thousands of people and established temporary shelters. At least two flood-related deaths have been reported, and the situation could worsen—forecasters are warning of further heavy rainfall in the coming days.
Extensive infrastructure damage has been reported across the regions: homes, hospitals, and medical facilities have been flooded; roads and bridges are submerged; power and communications are out. In some areas, particularly on the island of Sumatra, aid delivery is hampered.
Meteorologists and rescue services report that the current “package” of disasters was caused by a powerful atmospheric depression that developed into Cyclonic Storm Senyar, which intensified monsoon rains. Experts warn that heavy rainfall and further rising waters are forecast for several more days, maintaining a high risk of further flooding and landslides, especially in mountainous and coastal areas.
Rescue and evacuation operations continue: citizens are being relocated to shelters, air and sea equipment is being used, temporary hospitals have been deployed, food and drinking water are being distributed, and medical supplies have been delivered.
The death toll in Central Vietnam as a result of floods, flash floods, and landslides following prolonged rainfall has risen to 55 by November 22, 2025, RIA Novosti reports, citing the Vietnamese state news portal VietnamNews. The provinces hardest hit by the natural disasters remain Dak Lak, where 27 people have died and eight are missing, and Khanh Hoa, with 14 dead and two missing, the report states.
The economic damage from the floods, which the publication calls “historic,” has exceeded $340 million as of Saturday. Water has destroyed or damaged 946 residential structures, and 28,460 homes remain completely or partially flooded. Nearly 80,000 hectares of agricultural crops have been destroyed, and another 100,000 hectares are flooded and potentially damaged.
Flooding has also disrupted transportation links between the central provinces and southern Vietnam. National highways are flooded or blocked by landslides and rock falls in 16 locations, while local roads are blocked in 180 locations. Rail service between the country’s central and southern provinces has also been disrupted, the portal reports.
In some areas of the country, up to 1,700 mm of precipitation has fallen since the beginning of the week – for comparison, the annual precipitation norm in Sochi is 1,650 mm.
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Earlier, the Russian Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City reported that approximately 70 Russian citizens were in the disaster zone in Khanh Hoa Province and several districts of its capital, the resort city of Nha Trang. As of Friday evening, none of them were injured. Twenty Russians stranded on a tour bus on a flooded bridge in Dak Lak Province on the night of November 19 were evacuated to dry roads by Vietnamese rescuers on the morning of November 20. They arrived in Nha Trang on November 21 and are safe.
On November 28, 2025, the Thai government said 55 people had died in severe floods caused by week-long torrential rains that devastated nine southern provinces, while on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, rescue teams struggled to reach communities cut off by landslides and floods that wreaked havoc across three provinces. Flood relief teams in Thailand prepared drones to deliver aid, and helicopters dropped supplies to people stranded on rooftops on Thursday, as the death toll from the worst flooding in years rose, and the death toll from a cyclone in Indonesia rose to 61.
Thailand has stepped up its rescue efforts, deploying an aircraft carrier, 20 helicopters, and convoys of trucks to deliver food and medicine, and appealing to the public to use boats and jet skis to retrieve people stranded in water up to 2 meters deep for several days.
Thousands of people in Hat Yai have been stranded by the heaviest rainfall in 15 years, with 335mm of rain recorded on Friday, the highest single-day total in the city in 300 years.
Water levels in Thailand’s worst-hit flood city of Hat Yai have receded, and authorities have expressed optimism that access to basic services can be increased and restored.
Nearly 3 million people have been affected by floods in southern Thailand, with thousands huddled in evacuation centres, while in neighbouring Malaysia, similar flooding in seven states has killed two people and forced more than 34,000 people to take refuge in shelters.
In Sumatra, an Indonesian island of 60 million people, a tropical cyclone has triggered deadly floods and landslides, leaving at least 100 people missing and power outages and damaged infrastructure hampering rescue efforts.
According to local meteorologists, the current extreme weather conditions in Southeast Asia may be caused by the interaction of two active systems: Typhoon Koto in the Philippines and Cyclone Sen Yar, which formed in the Strait of Malacca. Global warming could lead to more frequent extreme events, as rising sea surface temperatures lead to stronger tropical storms.
The latest floods come after a series of deadly typhoons and heavy monsoon rains that battered the Philippines and Vietnam and caused flooding elsewhere.
In early September 2025, the island of Bali, a popular tourist destination in Indonesia, also experienced a series of severe floods. Prolonged heavy rainfall resulted in the destruction of buildings, the evacuation of residents, and loss of life.
Two buildings collapsed in the island’s capital, Denpasar, killing four people, according to the search and rescue agency. Another two deaths were recorded in the Jembrana region, where 85 people were evacuated, according to the National Disaster Mitigation Agency.
Torrential floods caused traffic jams on major roads. At the same time, heavy rains lashed the neighboring province of East Nusa Tenggara, where flooding killed four more people.
Heavy rainfall engulfed five towns on the island, causing flooding and disrupting regular traffic and daily life. This is evident from footage from rubber boats used by rescuers to evacuate residents from low-lying areas.
SONNY TUMBELAKA / AFP
Among the dead was a pregnant woman who was swept away while riding a motorcycle with her husband. Her body was found in a swampy area; her husband survived. Another person drowned on Tuesday evening after being near rising waters.
Rescuers and meteorologists blame the flooding on record rainfall, displaced by equatorial Rossby waves, without which the island would not have faced such a large-scale impact.
Two-story houses were flooded on many streets, and the torrential waters smashed banks and disrupted communications. According to the local weather bureau, this is the strongest storm in the last ten years.
Landslides affected several areas, including one in Karangasem, where land slid into a residential area and damaged buildings. The raging Tukad Badung River exacerbated flooding in nearby residential areas.
The victims are being treated, and rescuers are continuing to search for the missing. Experts say rainfall is expected to subside in the coming hours.
In early September, more than 25,000 people were urgently evacuated from the city of Jalalpur Pirwala in Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province, according to Irfan Ali Kathia, Director General of the Punjab Disaster Management Authority. Residents from high-risk areas were relocated to safer areas.
The evacuation became necessary two days after a rescue boat capsized on the outskirts of the city, killing five people and rescuing fifteen. Hundreds of boats and thousands of rescuers, volunteers, and military personnel are involved in the emergency operation.
In Punjab province, more than 4.1 million people in 4,100 villages across 25 districts have been affected. Since late August, floods have claimed at least 56 lives and displaced over 2 million residents.
AP
Additional evacuations were underway in the southern province of Sindh, with over 100,000 people already moved from vulnerable areas along the Indus River following flood warnings from India.
Since August 26, when heavy rains began and dams were opened in India, the Ravi, Chenab and Sutlej rivers have burst their banks, worsening flooding in Pakistan’s Punjab.
Drones equipped with thermal imaging cameras were used to detect people remaining in dangerous areas, and rescuers managed to evacuate them promptly. Authorities emphasize that they are doing everything possible to minimize the impact and save as many people as possible.
Saudi Arabia delivered 10,000 food packages and the same number of shelter kits to families affected by the floods. The deliveries came two days after the United States sent humanitarian aid to the affected regions.
Nationwide, this is one of the largest evacuation operations in recent months. Since mid-summer 2025, according to the NDMA (National Disaster Management Authority), more than 900 people have died as a result of flooding, and millions have been forced to seek refuge in shelters and emergency shelters.
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