More houses destroyed by landslide in Kebumen

Tarko Sudiarno, The Jakarta Post, Kebumen, Central Java

Following torrential rain in several areas of Kebumen regency on Friday and Saturday, 96 more houses were destroyed by a landslide in the village of Wadasmalang, Sadang Subdistrict, around 10 kilometers east of Kebumen.

However, no human casualties were reported in the landslide but 145 families have had to take refuge in neighboring villages.

Kebumen Regent Rustriningsih failed to reach the village over the weekend because of the absence of a road connecting the town to the village.

"The village is located in a mountainous area prone to landslides and can only be reached by foot," said Ageng Sulistyo, spokesman for the local administration.

On Friday, eleven houses were destroyed by a landslide in the nearby village of Seling in Sadang subdistrict. A week before, 120 houses were ravaged in landslides in Ayah subdistrict.

The two-week-long flood has damaged a total of 345 houses in the worst-hit regency -- 207 in Sadang subdistrict, 131 in Ayah subdistrict and seven in Buayan subdistrict. The flood also damaged hundreds of houses and thousands of hectares of paddy fields in Cilacap and Banyumas regencies.

Dwi Sulistianto, chief of Sadang subdistrict, said he has coordinated with the regency administration to distribute food aid to the refugees.

"The first thing we did was to evacuate all villagers to a safe area so that they could not be hit by any further landslides, as it is still raining in the afflicted subdistrict," he said.

Dwi added that, in anticipation to possible further damage, local authorities had established several emergency posts to provide relief for disaster victims, as well as circulating the necessary information to local people.

"The floods in many villages have subsided but locals should stay alert for possible flooding in the coming two months because the rainy season is not yet over," he said.

He also said thousands of food packages still lay unused because the local administration had experienced difficulty transporting them to refugees, especially those who had taking refuge in the village of Sidoredja, which was hit badly and was still inundated with rain.

Since most of the floods have subsided, most refugees have returned to their home villages to repair their houses damaged in the disaster. They are currently dependent on the local administration's logistical assistance because their food stockpile is no longer fit for consumption.