Indonesia has borne the brunt of the disaster, with its toll rising to 867 dead, and 521 remaining missing, authorities said. Many are in Aceh province on the island of Sumatra, where more than 800,000 people have also been displaced.

Sri Lanka's death toll jumped by more than 100 on Friday to 607, as the government advised people in areas that escaped last week's disaster to vacate their homes, warning that fresh rains had raised the risk of new landslides.

Thailand reported 276 deaths and Malaysia two. At least two people were also killed in Vietnam after heavy rains triggered more than a dozen landslides, state media said.

On Indonesia's Sumatra, many survivors were counting the cost of the deluge that started last week, leading to destructive flash-flooding and landslides.

"Our house was covered by soil up to the ceiling," said Rumita Laurasibuea. "Around the house, there were piles of wood."

The 42-year-old government contractor, now sheltering in a school, told AFP that recovering from the flood's impact "could take more than a year".

Hendra Vramenia, 37, had fled his village in Kampung Dalam in southeastern Aceh and feared that people in remote areas now risked starvation.

"This is a calamity we must face," he said of the disaster.

- 'Extraordinary scale' -

Indonesia's meteorological agency warned Aceh could see "very heavy rain" through Saturday, with North and West Sumatra also at risk.

It was again raining hard in Aceh's capital, Banda Aceh, an AFP correspondent said.

Indonesian flood victims said further rain was likely to bring fresh misery, a sentiment echoed across Sri Lanka where the military was deployed to help the clean-up.

Aid organisations in Indonesia said access to many remote areas remained blocked with roads and bridges cut off.

"The impact of the floods is widespread," said Ade Soekadis, executive director of Mercy Corps Indonesia.

The affected area across three provinces in Sumatra was larger than the country of Bangladesh, he told AFP.

"The scale is extraordinary, with hundreds, possibly thousands, of villages in 50 districts affected," he added.

In Sri Lanka's central town of Gampola, residents worked to clear the mud and fix water damage.

"We are getting volunteers from other areas to help," Muslim cleric Faleeldeen Qadiri told AFP at the Gate Jumma Mosque.

"It takes 10 men a whole day to clean one house," said a volunteer, who gave his name as Rinas.

"No one can do this without help."

- 'Unusual' disasters -

Two separate weather systems dumped massive rainfall on Sri Lanka and Sumatra as well as parts of southern Thailand and northern Malaysia last week.

The latest downpour this week in Vietnam prompted authorities on Friday to label 2025 as "the year with the most unusual natural disasters in history".

Across Asia seasonal monsoons bring rainfall that farmers depend on, but climate change is making the phenomenon more erratic, unpredictable and deadly throughout the region.

Environmentalists and Indonesia's government have also pointed to the role forest loss played in the flash flooding and landslides that washed torrents of mud into villages and stranded residents on rooftops.

Indonesia is among the countries with the largest annual forest loss due to mining, plantations and fires, and has seen the clearance of large tracts of its lush rainforest in recent decades.

Jakarta on Wednesday said it was revoking the environmental permits of several companies suspected of worsening the disaster's impact, and had launched a probe.

Should evidence show corporate involvement in illegal logging or land clearing, which aggravated the disaster, "investigations could escalate to criminal prosecution", said Environment Minister Hanif Faisol Nurofiq.

The scale of the disaster has made relief efforts challenging.

Indonesia's government this week insisted it could handle the fallout, despite a public outcry that not enough was being done.

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