The bodies of the four dead victims had all been retrieved and sent to their respective families, West Manggarai Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Julia Kusumawardhana said.

“The search for the four missing people is still going on at the location of the buried houses,” Julia told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.

A joint team of emergency disaster mitigation had also been deployed to the location to search for the missing people and to collect data on the financial loss caused by the landslide, acting head of West Manggarai Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) Dominikus Hawan said.

The landslide, which took place on Thursday and Friday, had also cut off the access road connecting West Manggarai to all other regencies in the central and eastern parts of Flores Island.

The National Search and Rescue Agency, local disaster mitigation agency, police and Indonesian Military (TNI) and other parties had deployed personnel to the affected areas to provide emergency assistance and to clear debris.

The Manggarai and West Manggarai public work agencies had also deployed heavy machinery to help with the recovery process.

“As of tonight the Labuan Bajo-Ruteng traffic is still at a standstill because the whole road is full of debris and a bridge was cut off,” head of Region III State Road Working Unit, Ori Patote, told The Jakarta Post over the phone. (swa)

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