Cyclone Ditwah has ravaged countries across the Indian Ocean basin for nearly a week, unleashing severe flooding, landslides and large-scale humanitarian distress. What began as a low-pressure system southeast of Sri Lanka on November 26 intensified into a deadly storm whose slow crawl along the island’s eastern rim proved catastrophic.

At least 1,400 people have died as a result of flooding and landslides across Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia, with many more still missing. The unusual combination of a tropical typhoon and two tropical cyclones is behind the mounting humanitarian disaster.

Authorities said they would need some US$7bil (RM29bil) to rebuild homes, industries and roads destroyed by Cyclone Ditwah, which has left at least 465 people dead so far.

Frigid temps and heavy snow gripped much of the U.S. on December 1, the first day of meteorological winter. It looks like these bitter conditions are here to stay.

As Sri Lanka confronts the heartbreaking aftermath of Cyclone Ditwah, one of the most devastating natural disasters in the nation’s recent history, the country has witnessed people and organisations coming together in an extraordinary show of solidarity.

Emergency crews raced to reach survivors and recover more bodies in Sri Lanka on Tuesday after the death toll from catastrophic floodsand landslides rose to at least 390.