TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
West Sumatra floods, landslides kill 21
Torrential rains on Thursday triggered the disaster in Pesisir Selatan regency in the West Sumatra province, with more than 75,000 people forced to evacuate.
Change Size
Motorists drive through a muddy road following flash flooding in Pesisir Selatan Regency, West Sumatra on March 9, 2024, after days of heavy rain across the province. (AFP/Rezan Soleh)
T
he death toll from flash flooding and landslides in Sumatra has risen to 21, an official said Sunday, with six people still missing.
Torrential rains on Thursday triggered the disaster in Pesisir Selatan regency in the West Sumatra province, with more than 75,000 people forced to evacuate.
"As of Sunday, 21 people were found dead and six people remained missing," Fajar Sukma, an official from West Sumatra disaster mitigation agency, told AFP by phone on Sunday.
A village located on a hillside in the Sutera subdistrict was struck hard, with around 200 families in the area left isolated after a landslide followed by flash flooding, Fajar said.
A local official earlier put the death toll at 18 with five missing.
Rescuers were searching for the missing on Sunday as authorities focused their operation on three areas affected by the disasters, local search and rescue official Abdul Malik said.
"Today’s search involves around 150 people from disaster organisations in West Sumatra," Abdul Malik said in a statement.
Doni Gusrizal, a senior official from the Pesisir Selatan disaster mitigation agency, said waters had started to recede after the flooding, but added that access to areas affected by the landslide remained difficult because of hilly terrain.
In the Padang Pariaman regency, also in West Sumatra, heavy downpours earlier this week caused rivers to overflow and triggered floods and a landslide, killing at least three people, according to a statement from the local disaster agency.
Search and rescue agency is hunting for those missing, officials said, with 150 rescuers drafted into the effort, hampered by blocked roads following the landslides.
"Today's search involves 150 personnel from various disaster agencies," Abdul Mali said.
Those evacuated gathered in the nearest mosques, said Abdul Muhari, the spokesperson of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) but no temporary shelters were set up. They received food, water and medicines, while others returned home as waters subsided.
Most areas in Padang are still flooded, Abdul added, with roads blocked by a landslide extending 50 metres (164 ft) in the area of Padang Pariaman.
Indonesia is prone to landslides during the rainy season and the problem has been aggravated in some places by deforestation, with prolonged torrential rain causing flooding in some areas of the archipelago nation.
A landslide and floods swept away dozens of houses and destroyed a hotel near Lake Toba on Sumatra in December, killing at least two people.
