Satellite imagery has revealed how deadly flooding in the last two weeks wreaked havoc across Southeast Asia as record rainfall upended life for millions throughout Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand.
Before and after imagery from the San Francisco-based imaging company Planet Labs PBC and the Colorado-based U.S. defense contractor Vantar, show how rising waters in Sri Lanka transformed parts of the previously verdant capital of some 650,000 people.
Along the Kelani River in Colombo, fields, open spaces and roads around the windy waterway turned into muddy ponds after Cyclone Ditwah made landfall Friday.
On Monday, media photographs showed children paddling in makeshift rafts around the capital and displaced residents taking shelter in tents. More than 1.1 million people were affected across the country, according to its disaster management office.
Floods across the tropical region over the past two weeks have killed more than 1,300 people and displaced millions. Around 400 people were killed in Sri Lanka, a country of 22 million people, with President Anura Kumara Dissanayake saying Sunday,"This is the first time the entire country has been struck by such a disaster."
Over three days, Sri Lanka was inundated by 20 inches of rain — a deluge the country's statistics department says is equivalent to the average rainfall for all of October and November combined.
Nearly 15,000 homes were destroyed, with around 400 people still missing, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Scientists say the damage illustrates how climate change is exacerbating extreme weather worldwide, particularly in tropical Asia, where rainy seasons are becoming longer and more intense.
“There’s really no point denying that climate change is with us now,” said Benjamin Horton, dean of the School of Energy and Environment at City University of Hong Kong.
“This time next year, when you’ve got the monsoon and if we’re still in La Niña, it’s going to be even worse,” he said, referring to the seasonal climate pattern that brings wetter weather to Southeast Asia.
Across the Malacca Strait in Thailand, where almost 200 people have been killed, military ships were deployed to support relief efforts as the record floods hammered the country’s south.
Entire alleys turned into rivers in Thailand, with rescuers seen riding in boats searching for survivors. Cars were washed away and rammed against houses in the southern Thai city of Songkhla as water slowly receded from the streets.
The city of Hat Yai, a Thai trading hub popular with Malaysian tourists that received 13 inches of rain, was among the worst-hit areas.
Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul on Saturday acknowledged the government’s shortcomings in flood management and announced compensation for those affected.
Further south, Indonesia was hit the hardest with more than 700 deaths as of Tuesday.
Satellite imagery showed that a section of the Peusangan River in the northern province of Aceh had doubled in width, submerging its banks particularly around a small dam. At least two homes were washed away in the swell, the debris of which was still visible, while a third house was also damaged. Roads leading up to the buildings and paved roads were wiped out from the flooding.
Indonesia with its warmer climate is seeing more frequent and intense storms as air can hold about 7% more moisture for every 1 -degree Celsius increase in atmospheric temperature, meaning global warming will inevitably worsen rainfall.
Horton said countries like Indonesia “need to invest in long-term resilience of urban areas, agricultural and rural areas.”
Damage there became clear over the weekend as weather conditions improved, and the country’s national disaster agency said it was working to open land routes that had been cut off by the flooding.
“We’re living in a very different world now. The houses that have been constructed in the past can’t withstand the climate of today,” he added.
