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.