Survivors found as death toll from flash flood rises<\/p>\n
Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Bahorok, North Sumatra<\/p>\n
More than 100 people, dozens of them foreign tourists, were found
\nalive on Tuesday, as the death toll from the devastating flash
\nflood in North Sumatra continued to climb.<\/p>\n
Another 11 bodies were recovered Tuesday, bringing the number
\nof dead to 103, local officials said. It is believed that at
\nleast 86 other people are missing, feared dead after a flash
\nflood struck the popular resort town of Bukit Lawang.<\/p>\n
The figures were released the joint disaster handling
\ntask force.<\/p>\n
However, data released by North Sumatra Governor Tengku Rizal
\nNurdin put the death toll at 86 people, mostly women.<\/p>\n
Rizal said the conflicting figures occurred as some victims
\nwere taken by their families and relatives without being reported
\nto local authorities.<\/p>\n
Those rescued alive had been trapped for more than 24 hours on
\nthe opposite bank of the Bahorok river, which burst its banks and
\nswept away hundreds of homes and tourist cottages on Sunday
\nnight.<\/p>\n
They were rescued one by one using a climbing harness and a
\nrope bound. Rescue workers pulled the rope to help the victims
\ncross the 30-meter wide and swollen river.<\/p>\n
Americans Tyson Murphy, 27, and Tommy Connelly, 26, both from
\nCalifornia, were among the survivors. They said they climbed
\ntrees to escape the flood, clinging to the trees for 90 minutes.<\/p>\n
When the waters subsided, \"we each kissed our respective trees
\nand took a branch with us,\" Connelly was quoted by AP as saying.<\/p>\n
\"It's one of those things you think will never happen to you,\"
\nsaid Murphy, of Laguna Beach, sporting dreadlocks and a Bob
\nMarley T-shirt. \"I just said a couple of prayers.\"<\/p>\n
Among the missing are three foreigners, identified only as 18-
\nyear old Limai from China, Lister from Germany and Mathi Lola,
\n60, from the Netherlands.<\/p>\n
Five of those killed in the disaster were foreign tourists --
\ntwo Americans, one Austrian, one Singaporean and one German.<\/p>\n
Governor Rizal said the search for more survivors would
\ncontinue for two weeks from Monday.<\/p>\n
The rescue efforts involved Army and Air Force soldiers,
\npolice, Indonesian Red Cross volunteers, other government
\nofficials and local residents. They were assisted by heavy
\nequipment like bulldozers and excavators.<\/p>\n
The rescuers also used chainsaws to clear huge logs to remove
\nmotorbikes, cars and other debris.<\/p>\n
Police dogs were brought in to sniff for bodies.<\/p>\n
The flood hit the resort town as people slept. The surging
\nfloodwaters carried hundreds of logs washed away from the nearby
\nGunung Leuser national park.<\/p>\n
The logs smashed into scores of houses, many of them tin-
\nroofed bamboo structures, as well as resort cottages on the
\nriverbank.<\/p>\n
\"We strongly believe that in the upstream of the river, there
\nwas a dam created naturally as a result of logs that had piled
\nup,\" Rizal said.<\/p>\n
\"The heavy rains caused the log dam to burst out and wash down
\nother huge logs along the riverbanks. This made a disaster as it
\nswept away homes,\" Rizal said.<\/p>\n
He claimed the logs were the results of illegal logging in
\nKaro regency, North Sumatra, and southeast part of neighboring
\nAceh province.<\/p>\n
\"We will investigate to find those involved in the illegal
\nlogging in the Leuser park areas,\" the governor claimed.<\/p>\n
Echoing his remark, North Sumatra Police chief Insp. Gen. Edy
\nSunarno vowed to maximize efforts to uncover those behind the
\nrampant illegal logging in the park and take them to justice.<\/p>\n
Government and military officials have widely been accused of
\nprofiting from the illegal logging around the country but no
\nconcrete action has been taken against them, despite frequent
\npolitical rhetoric.<\/p>\n
Local environmental activist Aljuhri said his United People's
\nForum to Save Forest had found thousands of huge sawn logs that
\nwere to be transported through a new road created under the
\ncontroversial Ladia Galaska project from within the Leuser park.<\/p>\n
\"We have long protested the road project because it will be
\nvery dangerous to the sustainable ecosystem in Leuser. The
\nlogging mafia will use the road to transport their stolen logs.
\nBut our protest was ignored,\" he added.<\/p>\n
Bahorok is on the eastern fringes of the park. It is the home
\nto a famed orangutan rehabilitation center, which is popular with
\ntourists who also go trekking and white-water rafting.<\/p>\n
Dozens of orangutans in the reserve, located a kilometer up
\nthe valley from the river, appeared to have been unaffected by
\nthe disaster despite the devastation, officials said.<\/p>",
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