BANGKOK (AP) — The death toll from flooding in southern Thailand has reached at least 145, officials said Friday, as receding waters started to reveal devastating damage across the region.

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More than 1.2 million households and 3.6 million people have been affected by floods triggered by heavy rains in 12 southern provinces, the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation said Friday.

Government spokesperson Siripong Angkasakulkiat said in a news conference in Bangkok that flooding has killed 145 people in eight provinces, particularly in Songkhla province which recorded at least 110 deaths.

He said search and rescue efforts have become more successful as floodwaters started to recede further.

Songkhla province recorded a sharp increase in the death toll after flooding began to subside. News reports showed rescuers gained more access to residential areas that had previously been submerged under high water and recovered more bodies, particularly in Hat Yai, the largest city in the south.

The disaster department reported Friday morning that waters have receded in most of the affected areas, but levels remain high in some locations. The Meteorological Department said rainfall has decreased in the south but warned of thunderstorms in some areas.

The flooding caused severe disruption, leaving thousands of people stranded, rendering streets impassable and submerging low-rise buildings and vehicles.

Videos and photos from the affected areas on Friday show damaged roads, fallen power poles, household appliances and debris washed away by floodwaters piled along the streets. Abandoned cars were overturned or stacked atop one another, apparently swept away by powerful currents.

By The Associated Press

Black Friday kicked off the holiday shopping season with enthusiasm, despite consumer confidence in the U.S. economy falling this month in the aftermath of the federal government shutdown, weak hiring and stubborn inflation.

This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.

Black Friday Shoppers wait in line to enter Macy’s flagship store on Friday, Nov. 28, 2025 in New York. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)
Adam Her wins the $5000 prize as he walks into Mall of America for Black Friday deals, Friday, Nov. 28, 2025, in Bloomington, Minn. (AP Photo/Adam Bettcher)
Shoppers line up to get into Mall of America for Black Friday deals, Friday, Nov. 28, 2025, in Bloomington, Minn. (AP Photo/Adam Bettcher)
A shopping cart full of Barbies can be seen as shoppers browse through Kohl’s department store for Black Friday, Friday, Nov. 28, 2025, in Woodstock, Ga. (AP Photo/Megan Varner)
Shoppers enter a Kohl’s department store for Black Friday to shop for deals, Friday, Nov. 28, 2025, in Woodstock, Ga. (AP Photo/Megan Varner)
Shoppers line up to get into Mall of America for Black Friday deals, Friday, Nov. 28, 2025, in Bloomington, Minn. (AP Photo/Adam Bettcher)
Eva Klein sits in the bottom of her grandmothers shopping cart as shoppers browse through Kohl’s department store for Black Friday, Friday, Nov. 28, 2025, in Woodstock, Ga. (AP Photo/Megan Varner)
Black Friday Shoppers browse products at Macy’s flagship store in New York on Friday, Nov. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)
Becca Mendoza and Tammi Hines look at products as shoppers browse through Kohl’s department store for Black Friday deals, Friday, Nov. 28, 2025, in Woodstock, Ga. (AP Photo/Megan Varner)
The shirt of a woman who has matching shirts with 4 other friends and all shop together on Black Friday as shoppers browse through Kohl’s department store for Black Friday looking for deals, Friday, Nov. 28, 2025, in Woodstock, Ga. (AP Photo/Megan Varner)
Shoppers browse through Kohl’s department store for Black Friday deals, Friday, Nov. 28, 2025, in Woodstock, Ga. (AP Photo/Megan Varner)
Shoppers walk along London’s most famous shopping Street, Oxford Street, on black Friday in London, Friday, Nov. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

By NINIEK KARMINI and KASPARMAN PILIANG, Associated Press

PADANG, Indonesia (AP) — The death toll from flash floods and landslides on Indonesia’s Sumatra island rose to 164 on Friday with 79 people missing, authorities said, as rescue workers found their efforts hampered by damaged bridges and roads and a lack of heavy equipment.

Monsoon rains caused rivers to burst their banks in North Sumatra province Tuesday. The deluge tore through mountainside villages, swept away people and submerged more than 3,200 houses and buildings, the National Disaster Management Agency said. About 3,000 displaced families fled to government shelters.

The death toll in North Sumatra province rose to 116, while 25 people died in Aceh. Rescuers also retrieved 23 bodies in West Sumatra, National Disaster Mitigation Agency’s Chief Suharyanto said.

“Mudslides that covered much of the area, power blackouts and lack of telecommunications were hampering the search efforts,” Suharyanto, who goes by a single name like many Indonesians, told a virtual news conference. He spoke from an airport in North Tapanuli district, shortly after conducting an aerial inspection above the devastated areas to see the scale of the disaster.

At a National Teachers’ Day commemoration speech, President Prabowo Subianto noted that three aircraft —including a Hercules C-130 and a newly Airbus A-400 — carrying rescue personnel, food, medicines, blankets, field tents and generators were deployed Friday morning as part of ongoing relief operations.

“We continue to send aid and support the needs of those affected,” Prabowo said. “Many roads are cut off and the weather remains unfavorable. Even our helicopters and planes sometimes struggle to land,” he added.

Prabowo said the disaster highlights growing global challenges such as climate change, global warming and environmental degradation. He suggested that environmental awareness should be strengthened in school curricula.

“We must teach the importance of protecting our environment and our forests, and seriously prevent illegal logging and destruction,” he said.

Footage on the aerial view above devastated areas in the three provinces shows swathes of emerald forest and terraced hillsides have been ripped open, their scars bleeding torrents of mud into valleys below. In North Sumatra, entire neighborhoods in the provincial capital of Medan and Deli Serdang regency lie submerged under a vast sheet of brown water, rooftops barely visible as rivers burst their banks. Roads that once pulsed with traffic now resemble canals, littered with stranded vehicles and uprooted trees.

Rescue workers on Friday were trying to reach many people in isolated villages after floods or landslides damaged roads and bridges, Suharyanto said. Aid and other logistic supplies in some places can be distributed only by foot over the severe terrain,

Rescue teams struggled to reach affected areas in 12 cities and districts of North Sumatra province. while the flooding in West Sumatra also destroyed rice fields, livestock and public facilities.

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In Aceh province, authorities struggled to bring excavators and other heavy equipment over washed-out roads after torrential rains sent mud and rocks crashing onto hilly hamlets.

The extreme weather was driven by tropical cyclone Senyar, which formed in the Strait of Malacca, said Achadi Subarkah Raharjo at Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysical Agency.

He warned that unstable atmospheric conditions mean extreme weather could persist as long as the cyclone system remains active.

“We have extended its extreme weather warning due to strong water vapor supply and shifting atmospheric dynamics,” Raharjo said.

Senyar intensified rainfall, strong winds, and high waves in Aceh, North Sumatra, West Sumatra, Riau, and nearby areas before dissipating. Its prolonged downpours left steep, saturated terrain highly vulnerable to disasters, he said.

Seasonal rains frequently cause flooding and landslides in Indonesia, an archipelago of 17,000 islands where millions of people live in mountainous areas or near fertile flood plains.

Karmini reported from Jakarta, Indonesia.

“New York cannot fix affordability while ignoring rising flood risk, and it cannot build resilient infrastructure that prices people out.”

Flooding in Queens following Hurricane Ida. (Kevin P. Coughlin / Office of the Governor)

The campaign is over, the ballots counted, and now the hard part begins. Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani ran on a promise to tackle New York City’s affordability crisis, pledging to triple the pace of affordable housing construction, freeze rents, and make housing attainable again. Voters agreed: the ballot measures that passed made clear that New Yorkers see expanding the housing supply as the city’s most urgent challenge. But affordability alone isn’t enough. The floods that took lives and homes last month are a stark warning that resilience must be part of the solution.

This is why Environmental Defense Fund, Regional Plan Association, the Association for Neighborhood Housing and Development, and Cornell University are taking a new approach that addresses these two deeply intertwined realities. New York cannot fix affordability while ignoring rising flood risk, and it cannot build resilient infrastructure that prices people out. With a new administration preparing to take office, this is the moment for a truly holistic approach that brings housing, safety, and long-term community stability under the same umbrella.

Mayor-elect Mamdani’s affordability campaign created a movement, which has led to a mandate for his administration to tackle the housing crisis once and for all. That same movement compels New York City to return to its rightful place as the leader in the fight against climate change. Yet, we live in a moment in which we can no longer treat the intertwined housing, affordability, or climate crises separately as if they require different solutions. They are all intrinsically linked, and we have an incoming administration that has the opportunity to make both a statement by acknowledging this hard truth and an impact by working to solve them for the future of New York. 

To figure out how to do that, we asked a simple but urgent question: how can New York build housing that is both affordable and resilient? Our new report, “Policy Solutions for the Climate and Housing Crisis in New York City,” draws on expert interviews, mapping analysis, and stakeholder workshops to find solutions. The result is a four-part framework for meeting New York’s twin challenges head-on.

We know the stakes are high because tens of thousands of New Yorkers already face the risk of losing their homes to rising seas and more damaging storms. RPA estimates that 19,000 housing units could be lost to coastal flooding by 2040, displacing more than 40,000 people. Without decisive action, that number is expected to triple by 2070, putting as many as 100,000 New Yorkers at risk. And that loss of stock will only drive up the cost of rents and mortgages for years to come. These figures make one thing clear: affordability and resilience are inseparable parts of the same housing crisis.

Here’s how the City of New York can solve the problem: 

First, it’s imperative our leaders create a unified, flood-resilient land use strategy. New York currently plans housing, land use, and climate adaptation in silos, which leads to building in high-risk areas while safer neighborhoods remain underdeveloped. Instead of this piecemeal approach, the city needs one framework that directs growth to low-risk areas, limits development in flood zones, and puts equity and long-term safety first. That means assessing housing needs and climate risk together, requiring resilient design for all new buildings, and evaluating the full costs and benefits of developing in high-risk coastal areas. It also means expanding affordable housing and green infrastructure in safer neighborhoods while maintaining affordability, and restoring high risk “blue zones” to manage stormwater.

Such a comprehensive plan also requires us to safeguard our existing housing stock. Much of the city’s housing is aging and increasingly exposed to flooding, yet retrofit programs are scattered and difficult to navigate. New York needs a one-stop, user-friendly system that consolidates assistance, expands support across housing types, and prioritizes low- and moderate-income households. Streamlined access to grants, loans, and resilient design guidance will help residents stay safely in their existing homes and preserve the affordable housing the city already has.

This year’s election was nothing short of a referendum on affordability, which is why we recommend creating stability and wealth in safer neighborhoods. As growth shifts to lower-risk neighborhoods, rising rents will push out longtime residents unless protections are in place. To prevent displacement, the city should pair new development with tools that build community wealth and local ownership. Discouraging property flipping, expanding co-ops and community land trusts, and giving tenants and nonprofits first chance to buy buildings will help ensure that safer neighborhoods remain affordable and stable.

Finally, these efforts must be backed by a dedicated resilience fund. New York currently lacks a reliable funding source to protect homes and neighborhoods from escalating flood risks. Coastal infrastructure projects, which are only increasing in volume, depend on inconsistent federal dollars, and local resilience upgrades are chronically underfunded. A dedicated resilience fund is needed to support home retrofits, green infrastructure, and coastal protections through tools such as flood management fees, or development fees, all structured to protect low-income residents. Stable and reliable funding is essential if housing and infrastructure are to withstand the storms ahead.

Together, these solutions point to a practical, achievable way forward. A new era of ambition and results are sweeping into City Hall at a time when crucial federal funds are treated like a political football. New York City’s leaders can rise above these challenges to overcome the housing and climate crises if we finally acknowledge how intertwined they truly are.

We have created a roadmap forward for those decision makers to deliver security and affordability all in one. New Yorkers cannot wait any longer for these solutions—the time to put them in motion is now.  

Anushi Garg is the Environmental Defense Fund’s senior analyst for climate resilient coasts and watersheds, New York – New Jersey. Robert Freudenberg is the Regional Plan Association’s vice president of energy and environmental programs. 

The post Opinion: Mamdani Has a Golden Opportunity to Address Housing and Climate Together appeared first on City Limits.