60 people feared dead in hot spring mud slide

60 people feared dead in hot spring mud slide

Ainur R. Sophiaan, The Jakarta Post, Mojokerto, East Java

Rescue teams combed through rivers and streams on Thursday to
search for survivors of Wednesday's mudslide that killed at least
31 people at the Pacet hot spring resort in Mojokerto, East Java.

Local officials fear as many as 60 people may have died as
dozens of people are still missing after the calamity, which
environmentalists called a "man-made disaster". Hopes of finding
the missing alive were fading, rescuers said.

Most of those killed were women and children enjoying a
holiday break until disaster struck.

A massive wave of mud, water and rocks triggered by three days
of heavy rain obliterated the resort, where scores of people were
bathing in the Padusan hot spring pools.

Police said some of the visitors were unable to escape when
the mudslide hit because there was only one exit gate.

"So far we have discovered 31 bodies," rescue official Andi
Susetyo told journalists.

At least 19 of the dead have been identified. Other bodies
were taken to the Dr. Sutomo public hospital in the East Java
provincial capital of Surabaya for identification.

Around 200 rescuers, comprising police, military, forest
rangers and villagers armed with picks, shovels and crowbars,
were searching rivers and streams below the resort.

They discovered several corpses up to 12 kilometers from the
site of the accident, whose location made it difficult to bring
in heavy equipment and large vehicles.

The rescue efforts were also hampered by huge boulders, broken
tree trunks and thick mud. Bad weather temporarily halted the
search for survivors at around 1:30 p.m.

"When the weather gets better again, we will resume the search
until night," Mojokerto Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Sobri Efendi
said, adding that state-owned electricity company PT PLN was
preparing to assist in the search.

The search was focused on four areas -- the hot spring pools,
the waiting room, the gate and the Sumber Glagah riverbed, which
were buried under rocks, mud and sand.

Sobri said police dogs had been brought in to help sniff for
bodies at the four locations.

He said the search efforts would take in a 10-kilometer
stretch of river and that the rescuers were expecting heavy
equipment to arrive to help remove rocks and sand.

East Java Governor Imam Utomo arrived at the disaster site at
9 a.m. and ordered Mojokerto Regent Achmady to shut down the
Pacet resort indefinitely.

"We should find another resort that is safe. Pacet is too
prone to disasters," he said.

Despite that, some 500 people gathered to watch the search
even after police blocked the road to the resort.

The governor expressed condolences to the victims of the
mudslide and promised to provide them with Rp 100 million in
humanitarian assistance. They would receive Rp 2 million each.

Speaking to journalists while accompanying the governor,
Achmady said the Mojokerto administration would cover the medical
costs of all the victims.

Utomo said the deadly mudslide was purely a "natural disaster"
and warned people against blaming each other.

"It is really a disaster that we are all concerned about. No
need to blame others. We have to work hard to find the missing
victims," he said.

But local environmentalists rejected the governor's claim,
saying the disaster would not have occurred if forestry
authorities had stopped rampant deforestation by loggers and
housing developers at the resort.

Syafrudin Ngulma, director of East Java's Walhi environmental
group, blamed state forestry company Perhutani, which owns the
resort, for ignoring illegal tree-cutting above the hot springs.

"Perhutani is responsible. It also did not inform the public
of an earlier landslide on Dec. 4. Police should investigate this
immediately," he said at the scene.

Syafrudin said the Dec. 4 mudslide, although much smaller,
followed the same path as the slide on Wednesday.

He said Walhi had for years been warning Perhutani to properly
manage the forest in Pacet and its surrounding areas of Tretes
and Trawas by halting illegal logging.

"They (Perhutani) even planted pine, teak and mahogany trees
in order that they could later harvest them," Syafrudin added.

Police said there had indeed been illegal logging taking place
in a pine forest above the resort, which is 30 kilometers
southeast of Mojokerto.

Syafrudin said Walhi would file a class action against
Perhutani over the calamity.