Ten missing after ship capsizes in West Sumatra
Ten missing after ship capsizes in West Sumatra
Kasparman, The Jakarta Post, Padang, West Sumatra
Ten people are missing and presumed drowned after a freighter
carrying 12 passengers sank during a storm on Thursday in the
waters of Tiku, some 95 kilometers north of the West Sumatra
capital of Padang.
Heavy rains in the morning in some parts of the province also
caused major flooding in Solok, inundating hundreds of homes and
rice fields in six subdistricts.
The KM Surya Baru II, bound for Nias island in North Sumatra,
capsized some five nautical miles off Tiku Beach in Agam regency
at dawn on Thursday. The vessel had left Muara Padang Port on
Wednesday afternoon, carrying 5,000 containers of cement along
with the passengers.
Local fishermen rescued two passengers who were found floating
in the water. Officials identified some of the passengers aboard
the vessel as captain F. Harefa, D.E. Sipayung, A. Jarefa, B.
Talambanua, Roni Lase, D. Lahiya, Peni Guci, Usman Zega, Roniman
and Rahma Lahiya. The port authorities, however, were not able to
identify the survivors or those still missing.
Navy seaman Syahrial said that naval personnel were assisting
the rescue team in searching for the missing.
He said that the vessel would be found in two days when the
storm had died down. "But we cannot speculate on the fate of
those missing," he said.
Meanwhile, heavy rains caused the Batang Lembang River to
swell and flood the subdistricts of Kapai Tabu Karambia, Sinapa
Piliang, Sembilan Korong, Aro Empat Korong, Pasar Pandan Air Mati
and Kel Koto Panjang.
Some 750 families, comprising 3,700 people, were forced to
flee their homes. The families were seen scrambling to save their
possessions until 10 a.m. on Thursday, even though the water had
subsided to 50 centimeters from 1.5 meters overnight.
Head of Solok administration's social division Suryadi Nurdal
said on Thursday that no casualties had been reported from the
flooding so far, but 425 houses had been flooded, hundreds of
hectares of rice fields destroyed and thousands of cattle and
fish stock swept away in the floods.
He added that the administration had established temporary
shelters for the displaced, deployed a medical team from the
city's health office and community center and provided food for
the flood victims.
The rains also triggered a landslide on a 200-meter plot of
land in the Tanah Garam area, which blocked half a section of a
road and almost reached a residential area.
Natural disasters have become more frequent in Solok after
illegal loggers stripped a nearby forest bare. Solok Regent
Gamawan Fauzi said he could not control illegal logging and
called on the provincial administration to address the issue.