Torrential rains in Indonesia cause at least 55 dead and thousands of displaced people. This was reported by the country’s disaster relief agency. More than 40 other people are missing.
Mud fell from the surrounding hills onto dozens of houses in the village of Lamenele shortly after midnight on the island of Adonara in East Nusa Tenggara Province. Rescuers recovered 38 bodies and at least five people were injured. Flash floods have killed at least 17 people elsewhere in the country and at least 42 are missing.
Rescue operations were hampered by power outages, blocked roads covered with mud and debris and in some cases also by rough seas and high waves. The bodies of three people were recovered after being swept away by floods in the village of Oyang Bayang, where 40 homes were also destroyed. Hundreds of people have fled from submerged homes, some were carried away by the flood. In another village, Waiburak, three people were killed and seven missing after night rains swelled rivers, submerging large areas of the East Flores district with muddy water. Four injured people were being treated at a local health clinic.
The death toll has thus reached 55. The rains have also caused the fall of cooled lava along the slopes of the Ili Lewotolok vulcano, which hit several villages. This disaster on Lembata Island killed at least 11 people, while at least 16 others were still buried under tons of cold lava, Jati said. Lava was left behind after the volcano erupted in November.
At least six villages were hit by flash floods and a landslide that cut five bridges on the island. Severe floods have also been reported in Bima, a city in neighboring western Nusa Tenggara province, which has forced nearly 10,000 people to flee.
Seasonal rains frequently 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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