At least 29 people are dead and 13 missing after torrential downpour triggered severe floods and landslides on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. There are more than 12,000 people evacuated while hundreds of buildings, bridges and roads have been damaged by the severe weather which affected nine districts or towns across Bengkulu province, the government officials said. On Monday, the disaster agency of Indonesia confirmed 29 deaths and said at least 13 more people were missing after days of throbbing storms on the island of Sumatra.
The flood waters have receded in some places but officials warned the full extent of the damage was not yet known and some areas were still cut off. The national disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said that adding that several people were also injured in the flooding. The landslides and floods could happen again if rainfall is high.
A “secondary disaster” in the form of skin diseases and acute respiratory infection due to poor hygiene and a lack of clean water was possible, he added.
Evacuation shelters have been set up to provide food and shelter to about 13,000 people affected by the flooding, while search and rescue teams try to reach hard-hit areas with rubber boats. Nugroho said, adding excavators were being used to clear debris from roads sad that the distribution of the aid has been hampered because road access has been cut off by the floods and landslides.
Landslides and floods are common in Indonesia, especially during the monsoon season between October and April, when rains lash the vast Southeast Asian archipelago. Floods in most of the parts of the Indonesian capital Jakarta during the week killed at least two people and forced more than 2,000 to evacuate their homes. The residents of Bogor, a satellite city of Jakarta, had to compete with about 14 pythons that were set loose from a private property due to the high waters.
