Indonesia is prone to landslides during the rainy season
Jakarta:
Flash floods and landslides on the Indonesian island of Sumatra have left at least 18 people dead and five missing, local officials said in the latest tally on Saturday.
Heavy rains triggered floods and landslides in West Sumatra’s Perisirnan district, forcing some 46,000 people to evacuate to temporary shelters.
“Eighteen people were found dead. Five are missing,” Doni Gusrizal, acting head of the Pesisir Selatan disaster reduction agency, told AFP late on Saturday.
The official updated the death toll he had given in an earlier statement to 10.
Dhoni said the debris caused by the disaster was hampering ongoing rescue efforts.
“The impact of the flooding is very significant. Currently we are clearing the roads…our vehicles cannot pass,” he said.
As of Saturday evening, power services were still out in parts of the North and South provinces following the disaster, AFP correspondents in the regency reported.
At least 14 houses were buried by landslides, more than 20,000 homes were flooded and eight bridges collapsed, according to an earlier statement from the national disaster risk reduction agency.
In Padang Pariaman regency in West Sumatra, heavy rains from Thursday to Friday caused rivers to swell, triggering floods and landslides that killed at least three people, according to a statement from the local disaster risk reduction agency.
Indonesia is prone to landslides during the rainy season, a problem exacerbated by deforestation in some places, with prolonged heavy rains leading to flooding in some parts of the archipelago nation.
In December, landslides and floods near Lake Toba on the island of Sumatra washed away dozens of homes, destroyed a hotel and killed at least two people.
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