Indonesia flood death toll rises to 44, with 15 people missing
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Locals in an area affected by heavy rain that brought flash floods and landslides being evacuated in Agam, West Sumatra province.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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JAKARTA - Flash floods and mudslides in Indonesia’s West Sumatra province killed at least 44 people over the weekend, while a search for 15 missing people continued.
Hours of heavy rain
“The heavy rain swept materials such as ash and large rocks from the Marapi volcano,” said Mr Abdul Malik, chief of the provincial rescue team. He later added in a statement that 44 people had died and 15 remained missing.
“Cold lava flow and flash floods have always been threats. But the problem is, (these always happen) late at night until dawn,” he said.
Mr Malik told reporters on May 12 that the bodies retrieved included those of two children – a three-year-old and an eight-year-old.
Mr Ilham Wahab, a West Sumatra disaster mitigation agency official, urged people to seek shelter in relatives’ places, which he said are safer than tents in heavy rain.
“We are focused on first, searching and rescuing the victims, second, protecting the evacuees, protecting the vulnerable people,” he said.
West Sumatra governor Mahyeldi Ansharullah told reporters on May 13 that around 130 people had been evacuated to an elementary school in Agam, while more than 2,000 people were sheltering at several places in Tanah Datar.
Roads in the districts turned into rivers, damaging mosques and houses.
Heavy rain inundated neighbourhoods with muddy flood waters and swept vehicles into a nearby river, while volcanic ash and large rocks rumbled down Mount Marapi.
Cold lava, also known as lahar, is volcanic material such as ash, sand and pebbles carried down a volcano’s slopes by rain.
‘Have mercy’
The authorities sent a team of rescuers and rubber boats to look for the missing victims and to transport people to shelters.
The local government set up evacuation centres and emergency posts in several areas of Agam and Tanah Datar.
The national disaster mitigation agency, or BNPB, said 84 homes, 16 bridges and two mosques were damaged in Tanah Datar, as well as 20ha of rice fields.
Survivors recounted their horror when the flooding and rockfall began.
“I heard the thunder and a sound similar to boiling water. It was the sound of big rocks falling,” housewife Rina Devina told AFP, adding that three of her neighbours were killed.
“It was pitch black, so I used my mobile phone as a torch. The road was muddy, so I chanted ‘God, have mercy’ over and over again,” she said of her evacuation to a local official’s office.
Ms Dwikorita Karnawati, head of Indonesia’s meteorology, climatology and geophysics agency, told reporters on May 13 that West Sumatra was a “unique location” because in parts of the province, rain could fall almost all year round.
“So the potential for floods and landslides is always present,” she said.
Indonesia is prone to landslides and floods during the rainy season.
In 2022, about 24,000 people were evacuated, and two children were killed in floods in Sumatra, with environmental campaigners blaming deforestation caused by logging for worsening the disaster. AFP
