I have an upcoming trip 'planned' and am supposed to be leaving on December 4th (wow - so soon!). My plan is to head to India and SEA for about 7 months, then head to South America for about 7 months (or more if I can find some work). Given the recent destruction and flooding in India and SEA, I am wondering if I should change my plan and start my trip in South America.

What do you think? Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Are you going specifically to areas badly affected by the flooding. How bad is the damage?

December is still 2 months away, so unless we're talking about seriously devastating, New Orleans style, flooding it's likely that the cleanup will be well underway in 2 months, and the biggest hurdle will be getting the economy moving again. I don't see a downside to going then, as you'll probably benefit from smaller crowds, and I doubt you'll be much affected by a flood that happened months ago.

Stick as you are - SEA deals with typhoons and monsoons every year so Im sure things will be back to normal by the time you go.
Also, if you switch you will end up getting to India in the off season - ie monsoon season and you will be in S America in the winter - which may be cold depending on which countries you plan to visit.

My husband and I just traveled in Hoi An (about 2 weeks after the typhoon), which is one of the cities in Vietnam that received the worst of the flooding. You would not even know it had happened if there were not lines drawn in some of the restaurants showing how high the water had reached. That being said they had about a half dozen other lines up there from other storms that had caused flooding. The typhoons are a way of life for them and once the waters recede the sweep the mud out of the store and open back up for business. We thought skipping these areas as well, but were so glad we didn't change our plans.

flooding is common in those area...doesn't matter when you go really...mother nature can happen at any time...

don't let fear take a hold...what if you are in south america and a volcano explodes or you fall off a climb? what if you go to SEA and a tsunami hits?

life is risk and you never know what it will bring...and you can never predict the weather. stick to your plan and just take it as it comes