The National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) reported that in the first nine days of 2022, 78 distinct natural disasters had occurred nationwide.
xtreme weather has caused flooding and landslides in Jayapura city, Papua, since last week, claiming lives and displacing some 7,000 people, officials have said.
Seven people died after being engulfed in a landslide in North Jayapura district on Friday, while another died from drowning in the Organda housing complex in Jayapura’s Heram district on Sunday, kompas.id reported.
Heavy rains on Thursday night caused the Menanti and Makanway rivers to overflow, inundating a number of districts, including North Jayapura, South Jayapura, Abepura, Heram, Nimbokrang and Muara Tami, according to the Papua Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD).
Thousands of people – 3,450 in Waymhorok village in Abepura district, some 1,700 in Heram and 1,847 others from gated communities around SMAN 4 Jayapura high school and the Musi Hotel in South Jayapura – have been displaced, tribun-papua.com reported.
The Papua BPBD said residents had been taking shelter at the Abepura education and training center.
The flooding had slowly receded in several districts as of Sunday, but 240 houses in Nimbokrang district were still submerged in waters up to a meter high, after heavy downpours on Saturday night caused the Grime and Aso rivers to overflow. The Organda housing complex was also still inundated as of Sunday.
Papua is not the only region to start the new year with natural disasters.
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