Floods kill at least 38 people in East Nusa Tenggara

Floods kill at least 38 people in East Nusa Tenggara

JAKARTA (JP): Floods following two days of rain in East Nusa
Tenggara have killed at least 38 people and swept through
hundreds of homes, Antara said on Thursday.

In its evening news broadcast on Thursday, state television
TVRI quoted data issued by the provincial administration as
saying that 125 people had died and no less than 160 houses
severely damaged in the floods.

The victims were from all from Betun village in Central
Malaka, close to the border with East Timor, the head of the Belu
district which oversees the area, Marselius Bere told Antara.

Bere said the rains, which began on Tuesday, had swollen the
Benenai River which broke its banks the following day, swamping
most of the Central Malaka subdistrict.

The fate of a number of farmers in Besikama village, in
neighboring West Malaka subdistrict, remains unclear because
floodwater have cut off all access roads, Bere said.

In some areas, floodwater has reportedly reached up to two
meters in depth, he added.

The head of the Belu district social affairs' office, Untung,
was quoted by the agency as saying rescue workers had been
deployed to evacuate residents from the flood-stricken areas.

But evacuation efforts were hampered because several bridges
have been swept away by the floodwaters, he said.

Hundreds of houses, including many sheltering East Timorese
refugees, an elementary school building and hundreds of hectares
of farmland have been under water since early Wednesday in the
two subdistricts of Belu, Untung said.

Bere said he had sought assistance, in the form of helicopters
and rubber boats, from authorities in the provincial capital of
Kupang.

Meanwhile, the International Organization for Migration (IOM)
said in a statement on Wednesday over 161,000 East Timor refugees
had returned to their homeland.

"As of May 16, IOM and UNHCR (the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees) have organized the return by land, sea
and air of 116,495 East Timorese from East Nusa Tenggara, other
parts of Indonesia and from Australia," it said.

"The total number of returnees now stands at 161,217."

Some 250,000 people fled to East Nusa Tenggara during the
post-ballot violence in East Timor in September last year.
(byg/mds)