More die as floods, landslides rise
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Days of incessant rain have caused floods and landslides to increase in several parts of Indonesia, leaving more people dead and thousands of houses inundated, some of them buried or destroyed.
At least three people were killed and 38 houses destroyed as flooding and landslides struck Aralle village in Polmas district, South Sulawesi, on Sunday.
Two of the dead, Dameng and Baco Gani, were found dead after being buried alive by mud, while the other, Pua Hakim, was swept away by floodwaters, Antara news agency reported.
Polmas district head Hasyim Manggabarani was quoted as saying the landslides occurred at 1:30 a.m. following three days of continuous rainfall.
There was no immediate report of material losses caused by the disaster.
The local administration has sent food and medicine to flood victims, and an excavator to remove mud covering roads in the village.
On Friday, at least 10 bodies were found when landslides swept through Gunung Kemala village in Karya Penggawa subdistrict in the district of West Lampung on Friday.
Local police said on Sunday a girl, identified as Vera, 15, was still missing and feared dead.
Another 50 people injured by landslides at more than 40 locations were being treated at local community heath centers in West Lampung.
Roads linking Lampung with the adjacent province of Bengkulu through Liwa district remained paralyzed on Sunday as several bridges were swept away by floodwaters.
West Lampung Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Rahmat Fudail said it would take at least one week to repair the buried roads if the heavy rains stopped.
The Lampung provincial administration sent food and medical assistance to the affected area by helicopter.
Floods also inundated thousands of houses in the Central Java town of Cilacap on Saturday. Floodwaters were still between 50 and 150 centimeters high on Sunday.
The floods followed the overflow of nine rivers -- the Cimeneng River, the Darmaji, the Cibogo, the Citayem, the Cikalong, the Citengah, the Cawitali, the Ciloning and the Ciberem River.
In the worst hit village of Rawajaya in Bantarsari subdistrict, around 1,241 houses were flooded to a height of between 1 meter and 1.5 meters. At least 50 families fled to safer areas.
Flooding in Bantarsari also inundated several community health centers and elementary schools, head of the Cilacap social affairs office Wasi Ariyadi told Antara.
The Cimeneng River burst its banks and cut off the road connecting Rawajasa and Bantarsari as the bridge there was swept away.
Cilacap Regent Probo Yulastoro said search and rescue workers had sent rubber dinghies and other equipment to the affected areas.
The local administration also distributed food and opened makeshift public kitchens for flood victims, he added.
Hundreds more houses were submerged by flooding in the district of Hulu Sungai Tengah in South Kalimantan as the Barabai River burst its banks. No casualties or damage was reported.
The trans-Kalimantan highway in the Pajakungan area leading to East Kalimantan was inundated by water almost one meter high.
Meanwhile, some landslide-affected roads along Sumatra island's western coast motorway in the southern part of Bengkulu province had returned to normal on Friday.
Landslides had paralyzed the traffic on routes linking Tais- Maras and Manna-Bintuhan after heavy rains drenched the area in the past few days.
Earlier this month, a mudslide killed at least 26 people in Padusan hot springs in the Pacet resort in Mojokerto, East Java. Environmentalists blamed the disaster on state-owned forestry company PT Perhutani for failing to stop deforestation and illegal logging.