Floods swamp parts of S.E. Asia, toll tops 150

BANGKOK, Thailand (Reuters) -- At least 151 people have been killed by torrential rains, floods and landslides ravaging Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia over the past week, officials said on Monday.

Massive landslides and flooding triggered by days of rain have killed at least 86 people on Indonesia's Sumatra island, West Sumatra provincial official Amri Zakaria told Reuters.

Hundreds of people are stranded on top of their homes in the worst-hit areas on the western and northern parts of the island. Many towns and villages have been cut off and some destroyed.

"I am 60 years old, and as long as I have lived, I have never experienced anything like this," one man caught in the flooding in Aceh, on the northwestern tip of Sumatra, told Reuters.

In the West Sumatra provincial capital of Padang, officials said at least 60 people had died.

"That's the number that we can be quite certain of, but rescue workers are still searching for more," provincial official Amri Zakaria told Reuters by telephone from the city, which has been cut off by floodwaters.

In North Sumatra, at least 26 have been killed in landslides.

The floods have disrupted rubber supplies, driving up prices, but other commodities in the fertile island are so far unaffected.

There was a significant improvement in the flood situation in southern Thailand on Monday, but it was worsening in some areas in neighboring Malaysia, officials said.

At least 54 people have died in southern Thailand, Pachorn Mahantapan, an official at the Rescue Centre in Bangkok, told Reuters. Damage caused by the rain and floods was at least 1.2 billion baht ($27 million), he added.

In Thailand, the rain damaged at least 200 roads, said Prasong Changwong, head of the Thai Highway Department's emergency unit.

The Thai cabinet is scheduled to hear a report on Tuesday on the flood situation in southern Thailand, officials at the Rescue Centre said.

In Malaysia, 3,000 more people were evacuated on Monday in the northern state of Kedah as river levels there continued to rise, Malaysian officials said.

Rains and flooding have claimed 11 lives in Malaysia.

Flights operated by Malaysian Airlines to and from Kedah's capital Alor Setar were cancelled for Monday and Tuesday morning because the runway there remains flooded. It was not known when the flights would resume.

The situation in the northern Malaysian states of Kelantan and Terengganu improved, however, Malaysian officials said.

On Monday, flood waters receded in Thailand's 10 southern provinces, where at least 600,000 people were affected by the heavy rain over the past week.

Thai meteorologists said rains in southern Thailand would continue for the next couple of days, but would not be heavy enough to threaten further flooding.

The waters were fast receding in the key commercial town of Hat Yai, where floods and rain had paralyzed life for almost five days. Officials said electricity would be turned on by early evening in most areas in the key rubber trading center, which has a population of 400,000 people.

"Tap water will also be back later today," said an official at the rescue center in Hat Yai.

Prices of consumer goods were rising and a few merchants were hoarding stocks in the flood-hit areas, "but now no shortage of food is seen," said Pachorn at the rescue center in Bangkok.

Trains to Hat Yai, which were suspended for the past few days, were scheduled to resume from Monday evening, a Hat Yai railway spokeswoman said.

Thai Airways, which had not suspended its flights to Hat Yai, said people could now commute into town from the airport as the water level had receded.

"All kinds of cars since Sunday evening can move in and out of Hat Yai as the flood waters have receded," Prasong of the Highways Department said.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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