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Floods, landslides hit as Indonesia enters rainy season
The rainy season has arrived in Indonesia, bringing heavy to very heavy rainfall that has caused flooding and landslides in several provinces over the past week, with both national and local disaster authorities warning people to stay alert for hydrometeorological hazards in the coming weeks.
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A woman sits on Jan. 25, 2024 in the window of a flooded house in Muaro Jambi, Jambi. Heavy rainfall caused the nearby Batanghari River to burst its banks and flood several upstream regions, including the Bungo and Tebo regencies. (Antara/Wahdi Setiawan)
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looding and landslides caused by a series of severe weather events have damaged homes and displaced people in many regions of the country, prompting local and national authorities to issue a public advisory on potential hydrometeorological disasters.
A number of provinces across the country have been hit by heavy rain in recent weeks, in line with the forecast of the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) late last year that the rainy season would arrive in early 2024 and could cause flooding.
Several regions on Sumatra currently battling floods include Ogan Ilir regency in South Sumatra and Bungo regency in Jambi.
In Ogan Ilir, heavy rainfall caused flooding in three villages on Wednesday. Floodwaters as of Thursday had reached a height of up to 40 centimeters and affected 183 families, with no local casualties reported, according to the regency’s Regional Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD).
But disaster authorities are still struggling to manage the flood in Jambi’s Bungo regency, which has recorded deluges seven districts since last Saturday.
Torrential rain caused the nearby Batang Tebo River to overflow, inundating over 14,300 houses and displacing 53,000 residents in waters up to a meter high.
Read also: El Nino could make 2024 hotter than record 2023
