Flash floods and landslides on Indonesia’s Sumatra island have killed 69 people and left 59 missing, as emergency workers search for bodies and possible survivors in the debris of rivers and villages.
Rivers swelled in North Sumatra province on Tuesday due to monsoon rains last week. The National Disaster Management Agency said the floods devastated mountain villages, sweeping away people and inundating more than 2,000 homes and buildings. About 5,000 residents fled to government shelters.
Television reports showed rescue workers using jackhammers, circular saws, farm equipment and sometimes their bare hands to dig through areas covered in thick soil, rocks and uprooted trees. Rescuers in rubber boats were searching a river and helping children and elderly people who were forced onto the roofs of flooded homes and buildings.
The death toll in North Sumatra province rose to 37 as rescue workers recovered more bodies on Thursday, provincial police spokesman Ferry Walintukan said in a statement. He said rescue workers were searching for 52 residents reported missing, but search efforts were being hampered by landslides, blackouts and lack of telecommunications.
“The death toll is expected to rise with many people missing and some remote areas still inaccessible,” Walintukan said.
Walintukan said that as of Thursday, seventeen bodies had been recovered in South Tapanuli district and eight in Sibolga city. In the neighboring district of Central Tapanuli, landslides engulfed several houses, killing at least four people from the same family, as well as one person who died in floods in the town of Padang Sidempuan.
Walintukan said rescue workers also recovered two bodies in Pakpak Bharat district and were searching for five people missing in Humbang Hasundutan, where a landslide killed four villagers. At least one resident died after mud and debris fell on the main road on the small island of Nias, he said.
The disaster agency said flooding was also occurring elsewhere in the vast archipelago, including Aceh and West Sumatra, where thousands of homes were inundated, many with their roofs collapsed.
Rescue workers had recovered at least nine bodies by Thursday after torrential rains triggered landslides that hit three villages in central Aceh on Wednesday, said district chief Halili Yog, who called on the local disaster agency to deploy diggers to pull out at least two people buried under mud.
Aceh’s disaster mitigation agency said about 47,000 people were displaced by flooding in the province, forcing about 1,500 residents to flee to temporary shelters.
Flooding in West Sumatra province left thousands of homes under water, including more than 3,300 in Padang Pariaman district, forcing about 12,000 residents to flee to temporary shelters, the local disaster mitigation agency said.
The agency reported at least 23 people dead and five missing in West Sumatra province, as rescue workers recovered more bodies on Thursday, including those of six people who drowned in floods in Lumin Park, a residential area in the provincial capital Padang.
Padang’s search and rescue office said several rescue workers on Thursday recovered seven bodies, including a child, searching in a river around the Anai Valley Waterfall area in Tanah Datar district, where flash floods left tons of mud, rocks and trees.
Rescue teams and volunteers in the hardest-hit Agam district by Thursday had recovered the bodies of 10 people swept away by floods in Malak village, said Hendry, a relief coordinator who goes by one name. He said rescue workers were still searching for five villagers who were reported missing.
‘Suddenly I heard the sound of thunder’
Malalak resident Lingga Sari recalled the moment she was trying to put her restless child to sleep when a flash flood occurred.
“Suddenly I heard a rumbling sound which got louder and louder,” said the mother of a one-year-old boy. Going out with her child in her arms, she saw neighbors gathering in panic and warning of a flash flood. He and others ran to a small prayer house at a nearby intersection, but the floodwaters began rising rapidly.
“We had to run through rising water again towards the rice field,” Lingga said.
Agama district chief Benny Warlis told The Associated Press that about 200 residents were isolated in landslide-hit Jurong Taboh village on the hill following the recent landslide. Authorities have not yet confirmed the number of people left homeless, dead or missing from the disaster, as all roads in the area have been cut off.
“We are facing difficulties in verifying the data of victims and missing people because access to the village, located on a steep hill, is completely blocked,” Varlis said.
Heavy seasonal rains from about October to March often cause floods and landslides in Indonesia, an archipelago of 17,000 islands where millions of people live in mountainous areas or near fertile floodplains.
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