Disasters displace thousands
Disasters displace thousands
JAKARTA (JP): Tidal waves in Central Sulawesi and floods in
Aceh have left more than 13,000 people homeless.
The Central Sulawesi administration said it had not received
report of casualty from Tolitoli regency, where tidal waves hit
on New Year's Day. One unconfirmed report said eight people were
killed.
In East Aceh, the official death toll from the flashfloods
that swept 224 villages stood at 16 by yesterday afternoon,
although the number could rise because some people were still
reported missing.
Several aftershocks shook people who live in villages along
the western coast of Central Sulawesi as the reality of the
aftermath of the tidal waves dawned on them.
Tidal waves, which one report put at as high as five meters,
struck their houses on Monday not long after a powerful
earthquake rocked the area.
The tremor, which was also felt in as far as Palu, capital of
Central Sulawesi, measured seven on the Richter scale. Officials
said the epicenter of the quake was in the Strait of Makassar
about 160 kilometers northwest of Palu.
"More than 400 houses and buildings in three districts--Dampal
Selatan, Dampal Utara and Bangkir--were destroyed by the tidal
waves," Harsono Hamu, an official of the Central Sulawesi
administration was quoted by Antara news agency as saying.
A Palu resident who was monitoring the situation through ham
radio told the Post by phone that eight people were killed.
"The people were evacuated and placed in makeshift tents in
surrounding areas," Yusuf Bantilan, the resident, said.
Tolitoli regency chief Gumyadi was not available for
confirmation. His staff said he was personally overseeing the
relief operation.
The Meteorology and Geophysics Agency in Jakarta said it
registered no less than 137 aftertremors in the Tolitoli area
between the first powerful quake that struck at 4 p.m. local time
on Monday and yesterday afternoon.
The western coast of Central Sulawesi province is prone to
earthquakes and tidal waves. In 1968, a series of tidal waves
killed hundreds of people in the Balaesang area. Powerful
earthquakes also struck the Tolitoli area in 1982 and Donggala
regency in May last year.
Flood
Meanwhile, reports from East Aceh regency said that more than
11,000 people in 17 districts have been forced to flee because of
the floods which began last Friday when the Liput and Tamiang
rivers overflowed.
Antara said that hundreds of hectares of ready-to-harvest
rice fields and oil palm plantations have been inundated.
One official in Banda Aceh described the floods as the worst
to hit the province in the last 50 years.
The state oil enterprise Pertamina has been forced to shut its
oil field Rantau because of the flood, Reuters reported quoting
an official of the company.
"The Rantau oil field has a capacity of 5,000 barrels per day.
It is small. We shut the field because of the flood. It will
affect production but only on a small scale," Pertamina's general
affairs director, Baharuddin, told the news agency.
The floods destroyed a bridge linking Banda Aceh, capital of
Aceh, and Medan, capital of North Sumatra. The road link was
quickly restored with the construction of a temporary bridge,
RCTI reported. (01)