South Sulawesi floods force mass evacuation
JAKARTA (JP): About 7,300 residents of Ujungpandang were evacuated to higher ground in the South Sulawesi capital on Monday, with the death toll from the calamity rising to seven.
Evacuations were also conducted in four surrounding regencies of Maros, Gowa, Pangkep and Barru, inundated following four days of incessant rain, said A. Jamaluddin, spokesman for the provincial administration.
Evacuees are sheltered in government office buildings, including the Wirabuana Military Command Headquarters.
"Two more unidentified bodies were found in Soppeng and Barru," he said.
Five previous fatalities were Isah, 40, Risma 4, Lawane, 40, all in Barr; Muchtar, 25, of Maros, and Kasmir, 3, of Soppeng.
Djamaluddin said hundreds of hectares of paddy fields and shrimp ponds in Maros, Pangkep and Barru were also inundated, causing losses in the hundreds of million of rupiah.
He said transportation routes between the capital and many other cities in the province were cut because of damage to bridges.
A search and rescue team from the military command, provincial administration and provincial police, in cooperation with the Association of Asian Medicine, has sent relief aid to flood-hit areas.
Floods in the past several days have also hit many other provinces in Sumatra, Kalimantan and Java.
Several districts in Pidie, Aceh, Surabaya in East Java and Purbalingga, Demak and Grobogan in Central Java were also inundated over the last three days.
The flood that hit five subdistricts in Purbalingga regency, Central Java, over the last three days caused Rp 395 million in material losses.
Antara reported yesterday that 22 houses were badly damaged, 2,300 flooded and more than 3,000 hectares of paddy fields under water and about 150 goats and water buffaloes swept away.
Sutono, secretary to the unit of National Coordinating Board for Natural Disasters in Semarang, said the flood in Purbalingga was caused by the overflowing of Klawing and Karang rivers following incessant rain in the last three days.
He said he was coordinating with the local administration to provide relief aid, including food and medical supplies.
Each owner of a severely damaged home would receive Rp 750,000, with Rp 250,000 was earmarked for residents of slightly damaged houses.
Kin of people killed in the flood will receive Rp 250,000 compensation.
"We are coordinating to evacuate people to safe areas," he said.
Warning
An expert has warned of even worse flooding and more landslides in densely populated Java in the next two months, identifying the northern coastal areas as the most prone to flooding due to the La Nina freak weather phenomenon.
Sudibyakto, chief of the Center for Natural Disaster Studies at the Yogyakarta-based Gadjah Mada University, said Java, especially its northern coastal areas, would be under threat of flash floods in the next two months because the rainy season would be at its peak.
"Flash floods may hit housing and farming areas along the Java coast because of the heavy rains and the sea tides that will likely remain high in the North Sea," he said on Sunday.
According to the Ministry of Public Works, at least 90 hectares of residential areas and 200,000 hectares of paddy fields and ponds in Demak, Grobogan, Purbalingga, Gresik and Lamongan are vulnerable to flash floods.
Sudibyakto said the floods were mainly caused by a prolonged rainy season influenced by La Nina.
He identified several areas in the island, including Bandjarnegara, Bumiayu, Magelang, Majenang, Banyumas and Wonosobo, as prone to landslides. (44/30/Jupriadi/rms)