A villager affected by flash floods walks amongst a pile of logs at Tukka village, Central Tapanuli, North Sumatra province, on December 2, 2025. Tapanuli is the worst-hit area, with about a quarter of the death toll, government data shows. - AFP
SOUTH TAPANULI, Indonesia: Indonesian Reliwati Siregar gestured angrily at deforestation around her home on the island of Sumatra, where landslides and floods brought by a tropical storm killed more than 700 people in its deadliest disaster since a cataclysmic tsunami in 2004.
"Mischievous hands cut down trees... they don't care about the forests, and now we're paying the price," Siregar said at a temporary shelter near her home in Tapanuli, the worst-hit area, with about a quarter of the death toll, government data shows.
