KANGAR, Malaysia — Gon Qasim and her husband were about to flee their home in Malaysia's northern Perlis state last weekend when rising floodwaters cut off road access, leaving them stranded in the middle of a field.

The elderly couple were eventually rescued by one of their children living nearby and taken to an evacuation centre in the state capital of Kangar, where hundreds of other families were also sheltering in tents provided by the national disaster management agency.