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Flooded streets in Riau leave dozens of residents isolated
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Life goes on: A motorist passes along a flooded Sumatra highway. (Tribun Pekanbaru/File)
H
eavy rain over the past few days has caused severe flooding that inundated several roads in Tebingtinggi Barat district, Meranti Islands, Riau. Twenty-four families of Kundur village are isolated, because the main road to the area is submerged by 1-meter deep floodwater.
“The water hasn’t reached the houses. It has only submerged the 3-kilometer long road. This means residents are unable to go out to buy their daily necessities,” Kundur village head Sutrisno said on Friday.
He said the water level had increased slowly over the past four days. “It is common for [the road] to be flooded, but it has never been as deep as now, as the rainy season coincides with [tidal flooding]. That has caused water to flow everywhere,” he said.
Meranti Islands Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) head M. Edy Afrizal said the agency had prepared two rubber boats to evacuate residents. “The officers will be on standby until the flooding recedes. Our priority is to transport residents who want to buy things in the district capital and children who want to go to school,” he said.
“To prevent residents from running out of food supplies, the BPBD has distributed packages of sembako [staple food] to residents that need them. Other needs, such as blankets and children’s clothing, have also been distributed,” he said. (ami/ebf)
