Unprecedented storm convergence kills over 1,400 people across southeast asia

A catastrophic convergence of three separate storm systems has claimed at least 1,400 lives across Southeast Asia, with many more people still missing as flooding and landslides devastate communities from Sri Lanka to Indonesia. The deadly combination of Typhoon Koto, Cyclone Ditwah, and the exceptionally rare Cyclone Senyar has created what meteorologists are calling an unprecedented weather disaster.

The most unusual aspect of this crisis is Cyclone Senyar, which formed in the Malacca Strait between Malaysia and Indonesia—the first cyclone to strike this equatorial region in 135 years. Scientists note that cyclones virtually never form so close to the equator, making this event extremely rare and scientifically significant. Meanwhile, Typhoon Koto has been tracking from the Philippines toward Vietnam, while Cyclone Ditwah has battered Sri Lanka’s southern coast.

The scale of destruction has shocked even experienced disaster reporters. “Usually, there is an area where landslides are contained, but this time, landslides have affected all the villages,” observed Al Jazeera’s Jessica Washington from Sumatra, Indonesia’s northern island home to 60 million people. In Thailand’s Hat Yai, near the Malaysian border, residents experienced the heaviest rainfall in 300 years—335 millimeters in a single day. “By 9 a.m., the water was chest deep,” local gas station worker Jantarakarn Kaewjan told Reuters, describing how quickly the unprecedented rains transformed his city into a flood zone.