Dec. 2 (UPI) -- The death toll from severe flooding and landslides in Indonesia rose to 702 on Tuesday with 1.1 million people evacuated from the worst hit northern and western regions of Sumatra, the archipelago's largest island.
The Indonesia National Disaster Management Authority's latest snapshot on its web portal showed that 499 people remained missing and 2,600 had been injured, with more than 3.3 million people impacted in total.
The agency said almost 10,000 houses had been damaged, more than 70% of them sustaining moderate to severe damage, as well as 323 educational institutions and 299 bridges.
The flooding from a cyclone that came ashore from the strait that separates northern Sumatra from Malaysia inundated large areas of the provinces of Aceh, North Sumatra and West Sumatra, leaving thousands cut off and running short of food and water.
Government public works teams were battling to clear the blocked route linking Medan City to Kuala Simpang in Aceh using heavy earth-moving equipment to remove soil, mud and other debris sealing off access to the area, BNPB wrote its social media account.
