H

eavy rains, arguably caused by the La Niña weather phenomenon that increases precipitation, have wreaked havoc in two regencies in West Java, leaving at least 23 people dead from rapid flooding and landslides in the past two days.

A flash flood struck Bayongbong, Karangpawitan, Garut regency, in the early hours of Wednesday after heavy rainfall hit the area starting on Tuesday evening and caused the Cimanuk and Cikamuri rivers to overflow.

At least 20 people were found dead and 14 others, including four children, were still missing as of Wednesday afternoon. Hundreds of people have had to leave their homes, according to the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB).

Meanwhile, in Sumedang regency, landslides buried three houses in Ciherang village and two houses in Cimareme village, killing three people.

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo ordered on Wednesday Social Affairs Minister Khofifah Indar Parawansa, as well as other relevant officials, to undertake immediate efforts to help the affected residents in Garut and Sumedang, as he extended condolences to the families of the victims.

“The President also wants people to raise their alertness in dealing with weather conditions, whether it is floods or landslides,” said presidential spokesperson Johan Budi on Wednesday.

Amid ongoing search and rescue efforts, BNPB spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho warned people across the country of the increasing rainfall caused by La Niña.

A BNPB quick response team and the West Java Natural Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD), as well as the military, have deployed personnel to help search for the missing victims and to assist the Garut BPBD and the Sumendang BPBD.

“Rainfall will continue to increase until it reaches its peak in January 2017,” Sutopo said. “That [La Niña] will bring more rainfall, heavier than normal, and therefore it can also trigger floods and landslides.”

Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar has also instructed the ministry’s secretary-general to study what environmental factors, like soil conditions and its geomorphology process, actually caused the landslides in Garut.

“There are many aspects that have to be resolved,” said Siti. “The problem is that [...] letting many houses be built in a disaster-prone area will also cause [such problems when disasters occur].”

Intense rain over the past three days has also caused flooding in a number of areas in Central Java, especially in Banyumas and Cilacap regencies where dozens of houses and hundreds of hectares of rice fields were inundated — causing possible crop failure.

Hundreds of people have been relocated to safer places because of the floods caused by a number of overflowing rivers, which was the result of continuous heavy rains in the southern part of Central Java.

The floods in the western part of Cilacap regency, which initially hit only Sidareja district, have now reached two other districts, Kedungreja and Gandrungmangu, engulfing about 600 houses with up to 1 meter of floodwater, said Cilacap BPBD.

In another part of the regency, two people in Kroya district were killed in floods that occurred over the past three days.

“If rain continues for the next couple of days, floods would definitely hit us as we are subject to flooding every rainy season,” said 43-year-old Saridin, a local resident of Sumpiuh district in Banyumas.