Starvation fears grow as death toll rises in flood-hit Indonesia

Many people need basic necessities.

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Many areas remain untouched in the remote areas of Aceh. People are not dying from the flood, but from starvation. That's how it is, says Aceh governorRuinous floods and landslides have killed more than 900 people on Indonesia's island of Sumatra, the country's disaster management agency said on Saturday, with fears that starvation could send the toll even higher.

A chain of tropical storms and monsoonal rains has pummelled Southeast and South Asia, triggering landslides and flash floods from the Sumatran rainforest to the highland plantations of Sri Lanka.

More than 1,790 people have been killed in natural disasters unfolding across Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam over the past week.

In Indonesia's provinces of Aceh and North Sumatra, floods have swept away roads, smothered houses in silt, and cut off supplies.

Aceh governor Muzakir Manaf said response teams were still searching for bodies in "waist-deep" mud.

However, starvation was one of the gravest threats now hanging over remote and inaccessible villages.