Floods engulfs West Timor area
Floods engulfs West Timor area
JAKARTA (JP): Some 300 square kilometers of West Timor are
under water following days of incessant rain in the area last
week, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
said over the weekend.
UNHCR said that aerial reconnaissance photos show an estimated
10 to 15 percent of the houses in the south-eastern areas of West
Timor have been destroyed and a further 25 percent damaged.
At least 140 people, the majority them East Timorese refugee
women and children, are believed to have been killed after
serious flooding in Betun region, Belu district. So far the
confirmed death toll is only 83.
UNHCR said that as of Friday evening, 21,000 people were
estimated to have been displaced. 16,000 of them were staying in
21 camps in the area.
The subdistricts of Central Malaka and West Malaka are the
most badly affected.
It added that 53 people had died in Central Malaka, 28 in West
Malaka and two in the Kefamenanu area.
According to UN agencies operating on the ground, at least 80
people are reported missing.
According to UNHCR, the floods are the worst reported in East
Nusa Tenggara in 22 years.
Five World Food Program (WFP) trucks with 20,000 full-day
rations and one truck with fuel left on Friday morning from Dili.
They were scheduled to arrive in Betun later in the evening.
A WFP helicopter has also airlifted three and a half tons of
supplies to the affected area. International Organization of
Migration trucks also left Friday with plastic sheeting, mosquito
nets, cooking utensils and other items.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has
supplies of rice, oil and other basic necessities in the area and
WFP has about 40 tons of fish in storage in Suai which can be
transported over the border should the need arise.
UNHCR said East Timor, Suai and Los Palos districts remain
isolated. However, access to Viqueque was restored on Friday
through a bypass road. Power is being supplied for only 18 hours
a day in order to ration fuel.(byg)