In India and China, heavy rains killed more than 250 people last week. Three more people died in Pakistan. Widespread flooding was reported in North Korea, near the Chinese border, but no one was killed.

This time of year is monsoon and typhoon season in Asia, and climate change has intensified such storms. Torrential rains have caused landslides and floods, devastating crops, destroying homes and taking lives.

Historical data shows that the number of extremely hot days in China is increasing and heavy rain is becoming more frequent, according to a report released last month by the China Meteorological Administration, which predicts more of both in the next 30 years.

Governments have launched disaster prevention plans to reduce the damage. Rescue teams are scrambling to evacuate people ahead of approaching storms and to deliver aid supplies to disrupted areas by helicopter. China has deployed drones for emergency communications in rain-prone provinces.

Sometimes this is not enough, as the tragic results experienced in Asia show.

India: 201 dead, 200 missing

Heavy rains in the southern Indian state of Kerala early on Tuesday sent torrents of mud and water through tea fields and villages, destroying bridges and razing homes.

As the search enters its fourth day, hope of finding survivors has faded. Bodies have been found some 20 miles downriver from the main landslides.

The area is known for its picturesque tea and cardamom plantations, where hundreds of plantation workers live in makeshift shelters nearby. “This was a beautiful place,” one shopkeeper said. “I used to come here many times. … Now there’s nothing left.”

India regularly experiences severe flooding during the monsoon season, which lasts from June to September and brings vital rain for crops.

China: 48 dead, 35 missing

Typhoon Gaemi, which hit the western Pacific last week, killed more than 30 people in the Philippines and 10 in Taiwan, but remained deadly in China after weakening into a tropical storm.

Rain drenched parts of inland Hunan province for several days. On Sunday morning, a landslide hit a guesthouse in a popular weekend spot, killing 15 people.

Elsewhere in Hunan, three bodies believed to be victims of another landslide were found on Monday. And authorities in the nearby city of Zixing reported Thursday that 30 people had died in the floods and 35 were missing.

Another death in China was reportedly linked to the storm, with a delivery driver riding a scooter in Shanghai killed after being struck by tree branches during strong winds.

China’s Ministry of Water Resources said this week that 25 major floods have been recorded in China this year, the highest number since statistics began in 1998.

North Korea: Damage but no deaths

The tropical storm also caused heavy rainfall in northeastern China, which borders North Korea, causing the Yalu River separating the two countries to overflow.

In North Korea, torrential rains flooded 4,100 homes, 3,000 hectares of agricultural land, many public buildings, roads and railways.

While the country’s official media did not report on the deaths, leader Kim Jong Un hinted at the casualties when he said public officials who neglected to prevent the disaster had caused “an unacceptable loss of life.”

Military helicopters and navy and other government boats evacuated stranded residents. State television showed footage of Kim and other officials boarding rubber dinghies to inspect the extent of the damage. The footage showed homes submerged in muddy water with only their roofs visible.

On the Chinese side, state television showed excavators trying to clear debris from rushing water after a landslide in Jilin province. A city near North Korea asked people living below the third floor to move higher as the Yalu River rose.

In Dandong, a major Chinese riverside city, rescue workers evacuated residents using rubber boats that turned streets into a lake. No deaths were reported.