EMERGENCY crews were racing against time today after last week’s catastrophic floods and landslides struck parts of Asia, killing more than 1,500 people.

Relief operations are under way, but the scale of need is overwhelming the capabilities of rescuers.

Authorities said 867 people were confirmed dead in Indonesia, 486 in Sri Lanka and 185 in Thailand, as well as three in Malaysia.

Many villages in Indonesia and Sri Lanka remained buried under mud and debris, with nearly 900 people still unaccounted for in both countries, while recovery was further along in Thailand and Malaysia.

As the waters recede, survivors find that the disaster has crippled their villages’ lifelines. Roads that once connected the cities and districts to the outside world are severed, leaving some areas only accessible by helicopter.

Transmission towers collapsed under the weight of landslides, plunging communities into darkness and causing internet outages.

In Aceh Tamiang, the hardest-hit area in Indonesia’s Aceh province, infrastructure is in ruins. Entire villages in the lush hills district lie submerged beneath a thick blanket of mud. More than 260,000 residents fled homes once on green farmland.

With wells contaminated and pipes shattered, the floodwaters have turned necessities into luxuries. Food is scarce, and the stench of decay hangs heavily in the air.

Helicopters began deploying to drop food, medicine and blankets into Aceh Tamiang’s isolated pockets, where clean water, sanitation and shelter top the list of urgent priorities. For many, survival hinges on the speed of aid.

Lorries carrying relief supplies crawl along roads connecting North Sumatra’s Medan city to Aceh Tamiang, which reopened almost a week after the disaster, but distribution is slowed by debris on the roads, said National Disaster Management Agency’s spokesperson Abdul Muhari.