Two perish, 33 missing after landslide in Gowa

Two perish, 33 missing after landslide in Gowa

Andi Hajramurni, The Jakarta Post, Gowa, South Sulawesi

Two people died and 33 others are missing after a landslide hit
Manimbahoi subdistrict in Gowa regency, South Sulawesi province,
on Friday morning.

The two were named as Sadding Limpo and Daeng Rumpa, both
residents of Manimbahoi subdistrict, Moncong Tinggi district.

Muhammad Guntur, the head of the subdistrict, said on late
Friday that he initially heard a loud noise at 11.30 a.m. It
appeared to came from near the foot of Bawakaraeng mountain.

Another loud noise was heard at about 1 p.m, which prompted
him and other subdistrict officials to rush to the scene.

There they found nine homes and an empty elementary school
buried by mud and rocks. "We concluded that the place had been
hit by a landslide," Guntur told reporters late on Friday in the
subdistrict hall, a few kilometers from the place where the
incident happened. He said that the landslide had been caused by
the torrential rain that had been falling in the area since last
week.

He said that the two had not been quick enough to get out of
their houses when the landslide hit. "They were over 60," Guntur
said.

He said a search and rescue team from Hasanuddin University in
Makassar had arrived in the subdistrict late on Friday, and would
try to find the 33 missing people on Saturday.

Makassar, the capital of South Sulawesi province, is located
some 80 kilometers north of the scene.

Guntur said that more than 100 residents of the subdistrict
had been evacuated to safety for fear of further landslides in
the area.

Syafrudin, the head of Tinggi Moncong district, said that not
only human beings had succumbed to the landslide. Hundreds of
head of livestock were also missing, including cattle and goats.

The last devastating landslides in the country occurred at the
end of January this year in Purworejo regency, Central Java
regency where at least 15 people were killed. The landslides and
floods triggered by days of rain swept through three villages in
the regency.

The rapid pace of deforestation is blamed as the main cause of
the landslides that plague Indonesia. Deforestation is caused by
rampant illegal logging.