The Indonesian disaster relief agency initially reported 753 fatalities on Sumatra over the past week, although it revised the number down to 708 later on Tuesday, without explanation. The combined death toll across Southeast Asia is over 1,350.
Local officials on Sumatra said downed power lines, blocked roads, and fuel shortages were complicating efforts to deliver food and medicine. The Indonesian military has provided support by airdropping supplies, but some of the supplies they delivered were damaged on landing.
Aftermath of flash flood which ravaged homes, mosque and severed road access in Batipuh Village, Tanah Datar District, West Sumatera Province, Indonesia on November 28, 2025. (Adi Prima/Anadolu via Getty Images)
The flooding in Sumatra’s northwestern province of Aceh was so severe that supplies of drinking water are running low, forcing local residents to clean and drink muddy flood water.
A hunger crisis is looming in the hardest-hit areas, and the public is increasingly frustrated that the central Indonesian government has not declared a national emergency. Indonesian social media is filled with complaints about the insufficient disaster relief budget, which was cut in half from last year’s funding.
Central government officials responded that a national state of emergency cannot be legally declared until provincial governments have formally declared themselves unable to cope with the disaster, a step most of them have not yet taken. Only four of the sixteen flooded districts in Aceh had declared themselves unable to handle disaster response as of Wednesday.
National disaster conditions are rare in Indonesia, the most recent having been declared during the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic despite regular floods and landslides.
Indonesian Home Affairs Minister Tito Karnavian on Monday admitted the flooding disaster “happened very quickly, and maybe we were not prepared for it.”
The head of the government’s meteorological agency disagreed, saying the path of the devastating Tropical Cyclone Senyar was predicted at least eight days in advance, and appropriate warnings were given to the Home Ministry on three different occasions.
Karnavian said at a press conference on Wednesday that international assistance was not needed, as provinces outside the flood zone have contributed supplies. The administration of President Prabowo Subianto said additional funding would be made available if necessary.
Residents of western Sumatra said deforestation may have contributed to the scale of the damage, as massive piles of harvested timber have been discovered among the flood debris. Deforestation weakens the terrain and makes landslides more likely.
“The logs carried by the floods weren’t the kind you get from a flash flood. If old trees were uprooted, you would see roots and fragile bark. But these were clean, neatly cut pieces of wood… they looked like the result of illegal logging,” a resident of West Sumatra’s capital of Padang told the Associated Press on Wednesday.
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