Indonesia flood death toll rises to 57 with 22 missing
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Heavy machinery clear mud and debris following deadly flash floods and cold lava flow in Tanah Datar, West Sumatra, on May 13.
PHOTO: AFP
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AGAM, Indonesia - Rescuers recovered more bodies on May 14 after flash floods and a cold lava flow on Indonesia’s Sumatra island over the weekend killed at least 57 people and left another 22 missing, provincial officials said.
Hours of heavy rain
“To date, 57 victims have been found dead,” Mr Ilham Wahab, a West Sumatra disaster mitigation agency official, told AFP, adding that 22 people were still missing.
Workers cleaned up damaged buildings after the deluge while rescuers deployed a thermal drone to help the search, using excavators and their bare hands to try to find survivors in the rivers and rubble.
“For the emergency response, heavy equipment has moved to clean up the disaster areas. And after this, we will go to shelters to ensure affected communities are served well,” national disaster mitigation agency (BNPB) chief Suharyanto told reporters on May 14.
More than 3,300 people have evacuated from the affected areas, according to the authorities.
They warned that the death toll could rise further as the search for those missing continued.
The search was urgent, as rescuers only had a “golden time” of six days to find survivors, Mr Suharyanto said.
Residents described the terror late on May 11 as the floods, bringing along volcanic materials and logs, inundated their neighbourhoods and destroyed their houses.
Ms Meli Karmila, a 29-year-old mother of one, said she rushed from her home carrying her child when the flood hit, climbing over a car stuck in another house to shelter on the house’s second floor.
“When seeing the big water... oh God. I felt like I was going to die. There, I vomited; my stomach ulcer relapsed,” Ms Meli told AFP on May 14. “My house was damaged, destroyed.”
Dozens of houses were swept away, and rescuers said many of the victims were found in or around nearby rivers.
Workers rushed to clear and repair a damaged bridge to ease access to the area.
To aid the rescue effort, the authorities said they would deploy weather modification technology that would start to work from May 15.
Indonesian officials use the term “weather modification technology” for cloud seeding, in this case using it in an attempt to trigger rain earlier, thus weakening the rainfall’s intensity when it reaches the disaster-struck area.
“Efforts were made so these rain clouds would not fall at the location of the disaster,” meteorological agency chief Dwikorita Karnawati told reporters.
Terrifying rains
Aid deliveries were being carried out using air and land routes, some of which required emergency bridges, after the flooding and cold lava flow cut off some road access in the worst-hit areas, Mr Suharyanto said.
BNPB spokesman Abdul Muhari on May 13 said 71 houses were completely swept away, and 125 houses were moderately damaged by the flooding and cold lava flow.
Cold lava, also known as lahar, is volcanic material such as ash, sand and pebbles carried down a volcano’s slopes by rain.
Indonesia is prone to landslides and flooding during the rainy season. In 2022, about 24,000 people were evacuated and two children killed in floods on Sumatra island, with environmental campaigners blaming deforestation caused by logging for worsening the disaster.
Trees act as a natural defence against floods, slowing the rate at which water runs down hills and into rivers.
Marapi is one of Indonesia’s most active volcanos. In December, it erupted and spewed an ash tower 3,000m into the sky, taller than the volcano itself.
At least 24 climbers, most of them university students
