LEMBATA, Indonesia (AP) – The death toll from mudslides in eastern Indonesia has risen to 140 and dozens more are missing, officials said on Wednesday as rains continued to hit the region and hindering research.
The district of East Flores, on Adonara Island, suffered the highest losses, with 67 bodies recovered so far and six missing. The mud fell from the surrounding hills in the early hours of Sunday and made people sleepy. Some were swept away by flash floods after overnight rains erupted in their rivers.
On the nearby island of Lembata, the downpour caused by tropical cyclone Seroja sent solidified lava from a volcanic eruption in November to crash into more than a dozen villages, killing at least 32 and leaving 35 dead. , according to the National Disaster Mitigation Agency.
Hundreds of police, soldiers and residents dug among the wreckage with their bare hands, shovels and hoes in search of the buried. Relatives mourned Wednesday as they saw lifeguards pull out a mud-stuffed body, place it on a bamboo stretcher and take it to be buried.
“Please find my father and mother who are still buried … whatever their conditions,” Suzanna Tasoin shouted to lifeguards struggling to dig up tons of volcanic materials and rocks with agricultural tools in the village of Waimatan, on the island of Lembata, “We want to bury them with the respect they deserve.”
In all, landslides and floods have killed at least 140 people on several islands in Indonesia, as well as 27 people in neighboring East Timor. Thousands of homes have been damaged and thousands of people have been displaced by the weather, which is expected to continue until at least Friday as the storm moves south to Australia.
Rescue efforts were hampered by rain and the remoteness of the area, where roads and bridges were damaged in many places.
Rescue personnel with excavators and tons of food and medicine were being deployed from the city of Makassar on the island of Sulawesi, but were hampered by bad weather and extremely high waves.
Five helicopters were helping to reach isolated areas of the islands, head of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency, Doni Monardo, told reporters on Wednesday.
He said the evacuees necessarily needed commodities such as blankets, mats, tents, baby food and medical services.
The government provided tens of thousands of masks against the coronavirus and Monardo said authorities would set up health sites in refugee camps to test for the virus.
He said six navy ships, including a hospital ship, were expected to arrive on Friday, carrying more goods to relieve the crowded hospitals and clinics of eastern Nusa Tenggara, one of Indonesia’s poorest provinces. .
___
Karmini reported from Jakarta, Indonesia.