Floods wreak havoc in Malaysia, southern Thailand as tens of thousands evacuated

Malaysia launched a nationwide relief effort on Friday as floods claimed three lives and forced the evacuation of more than 80,000 people across seven states in what the government said could be the worst deluge in a decade.

Southeast Asia is facing increasingly extreme weather events as global temperatures surge beyond the 1.5 degrees Celsius rise deemed as relatively safe to prevent the worst impacts of climate change.

Across the northern border in Thailand’s southernmost provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat, at least two people were killed in surging waters and 240,000 households hit by floods, according to the kingdom’s disaster prevention and mitigation department.

As rivers burst their banks, floodwaters rose up to rooftops in some villages and inundated several hospitals.

Videos showed farmers struggling to move cows to higher ground as rescue and relief efforts were hampered by flooded roads and damaged bridges.

In Malaysia, drone shots broadcast on news channels and social media showed dozens of villages and towns across the peninsula submerged in brown floodwaters.