Asia Reels from Cyclone Aftermath
REPORTER:
The floodwaters are still high more than a week after Cyclone Senyar hit Indonesia. More than 700 people are dead-- and the survivors are suffering.
Rice farmer Edo Sitompul sheds a tear at the destruction—including heavy damage to his home and devastated crops. He says he just wants everything to go back to normal—but acknowledges that won’t be easy.
His wife says they’ve done little else but cry and attempt to clean up. What the future holds is anyone’s guess.
BITE:
We have a lot of debt. But we borrowed from other people too. All of that debt was for the children, for small things, like trying to plant rice on a little plot. But now there’s nothing left to rely on. Everything is destroyed. So we don’t even know anymore what we’re going to eat in the days ahead.
REPORTER:
Local officials say providing relief is their priority—but at least in some places, getting essentials is proving hard.
BITE:
We have no blankets here, no towels, no diapers, no baby milk.
REPORTER:
It’s a similar story in Sri Lanka—another island nation hit by a violent storm last week. The death toll from Cyclone Ditwah is nearing 500. These people in the landslide-hit town of Mawathura are digging through rubble by hand searching for those who didn't make it out in time.
BITE:
We got together later and looked. Part of the village had disappeared. There was nothing left. Then we left to the temple for the night. We came back early in the morning. We saved a couple, but the child was dead. We took the two to the hospital and then came back to find buried bodies. That is what we are still working tirelessly for.
REPORTER:
And, like in Indonesia, there's financial ruin. The owner of this electronics repair shop in the town of Gampola thought moving his goods upstairs would save them from the flood. He was wrong. And he estimates losses of more than $22,000 US dollars.
BITE:
There were about 20 television sets and they were brand new LED TV sets. There were a lot of electronic goods that we had just repaired.
REPORTER:
Scientists warn a warming earth could bring more intense storms like this to places like Sri Lanka.
BITE:
What we know is that the cyclones that we have that are about in the same number, they become more intense so they produce more rain and so they are more impactful. So, the same amount of cyclones produce impacts that are larger because they are all becoming more intense.
REPORTER:
Which could mean the storms that hit Asia in the future could pack a serious punch.
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