Food supply to flood hit areas disrupted

Food supply to flood hit areas disrupted

PADANG, West Sumatra (JP): Supplies of food and medicines to
regencies devastated by floods and landslides in West Sumatra
were being obstructed as the roads leading to the affected areas
had been cut, while other alternative routes had been washed away
due to the incessant rain, governor Zainal Bakar said here on
Tuesday.

"We've been trying to provide emergency aid as far as we can.
Aid first then rehabilitation," he said, adding that evacuations
were continuing, especially in the disaster-hit regencies,
including 50 Kota, Pasaman, Agam, Pesisir Selatan and Tanah
Datar, and the mayoralties of Solok, Padang and Pariaman.

Reports said that at least 75,000 evacuees in these
mayoralties and regencies had run out of food, medicines and
clothes.

Most of the evacuees are being accommodated in tents, mosques
and school buildings.

According to Zainal, the provincial administration was
responsible for the disaster, meaning that compensation would be
made available to those whose relatives were killed, and those
who had lost their rice crops and belongings.

Field reports said that the death toll had reached 74, while
according to data gathered by the National Search and Rescue
Agency from eight regencies in West Sumatra, 43 dead bodies had
been recovered, 71 persons declared missing and 115 others
injured.

"The death toll may increase as we still have difficulties in
reaching the locations of the landslides in remote areas.
Usually, a victim can survive for three days or so but in a case
like this, we cannot predict that," Search and Rescue (SAR) chief
Rear Adm. Setio Rahardjo said.

Setio added that 11 additional SAR personnel plus one
helicopter and one jeep were being dispatched to West Sumatra to
help cope with the calamity.

"Currently we have only 13 personnel," Setio told The Jakarta
Post.

Most parts of West Sumatra have been experiencing power
blackouts since one of the towers at a hydroelectric power
station in Singkarak collapsed due to the storms and torrential
rain.

West Sumatra administration spokesman Yuen Karnova estimated
that the catastrophe had caused at least Rp 300 billion in
losses.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Embassy in a written statement said that
the victims of the flooding and landslides in Sumatra would
receive emergency assistance amounting to US$25,000 from the U.S.
Government.

To show its seriousness in tackling the crisis, the government
is to send Minister of Health Achmad Sujudi, Minister of
Settlement and Regional Infrastructure Erna Witoelar, a number of
SAR teams as well as members of the National Disaster Management
Board (Bakornas), to the disaster-hit areas of West Sumatra,
North Sumatra and Aceh on Wednesday.

Aceh

Meanwhile, most areas in the restive province of Aceh were
still crippled on Tuesday, despite the fact that the floods were
gradually receding.

In many areas the electricity supply and telephone service was
still disrupted, and offices were closed as employees were busy
cleaning out the mud from their homes.

Reports said that at least 16 people had died in the floods,
said to be the biggest in the history of Aceh.

"Food supplies are returning to normal," a local said.

In the regency of Pidie, the floods have destroyed hectares of
shrimp ponds and thousands of residents' houses.

"In the regency of Pidie alone, the floods have caused
billions of rupiah in losses. Most of the 23 districts have been
inundated," Husen Abu Bakar, the regency's spokesman, told the
Post.

Residents said the floods were the biggest ever in the
regency. "In previous floods, the water reached only 30
centimeters, and receded within hours. Now we have more than two
meters and the floods have lasted for days," Husen said.

Torrential rain and high tides were blamed for the floods.

Six villages in the Jienjien area, where the Free Aceh
Movement (GAM)'s headquarters is located, are now totally
isolated, residents said. "No access to and from Jienjien," a
local, who asked not to be identified, said.

In the regency of Dairi, North Sumatra, rescue workers
recovered eight bodies from the site of a landslide on Tuesday,
but dozens of others were believed to be still buried in the mud.

Dairi was isolated as all routes had been paralyzed due to
landslides, leaving the only route still open to Medan being that
through Siantar and Siborong-borong, Muharram Sinaga, an official
at the local disaster post, said.

"We are worried about food supplies and it's quite difficult
to construct alternative routes with the rain still falling. The
water keeps washing away the tracks," he said. (team)