More than 70 people have been killed after flash floods and landslides swept through eastern Indonesia and neighboring Timor-Leste on Sunday, authorities said with warnings that the toll could rise further.
Rain wreaked havoc on islands ranging from the island of Flores in Indonesia to Timor-Leste, a small nation east of the Indonesian archipelago.
The avalanche and subsequent landslides caused dams to flood, leaving thousands of homes under water and rescue workers struggling to reach survivors trapped in the aftermath.
“There are 55 dead, but this number is very dynamic and will definitely change, while about 42 people are still missing,” Indonesian disaster management spokesperson Raditya Djati told MetroTV.
Mud flooded homes, bridges and roads in the East Flores municipality, where rescuers struggled to reach a remote and severely affected area due to rain and strong waves.
In Timor-Leste, 11 people were killed by the floods in the capital Dili, authorities said. “We are still searching for the areas affected by the natural disasters,” said Joaquim José Gusmão dos Reis Martins, Minister of Civil Protection in Timor-Leste.
Authorities warned that the death toll and the number of injured victims could continue to rise.
Agustinus Payong Boli, deputy regent of East Flores, estimated that there were 60 victims in his municipality.
‘The majority of them, 55, are in the town of Lemanele. “Many people died here because the town was hit by both landslides and flash floods,” he told Agence France-Presse. The numbers have not yet been confirmed by the national government.
Images from Lemanele showed sunken houses, rubble covering entire roads, fallen trees and damaged power lines.
According to an AFP journalist at the scene, parts of afflicted villages in Lembata, an island halfway between Flores and Timor, have been relocated up a mountain slope and near the coastline. Local officials used heavy equipment to reopen roads that had been cut off.
Injured victims were evacuated to neighboring villages not affected by the flash floods. Images of Lembata showed people blowing barefoot through mud and evacuating the victims of collapsed homes on temporary stretchers.
According to the disaster agency, two people were killed separately in major floods in the city of Bima in the neighboring province of West Nusa Tenggara on Sunday.
Dams in four sub-districts also overflowed and nearly 10,000 homes in Bima fell under water after a nine-hour downpour, Jati said.
Deadly landslides and flash floods occur frequently over the Indonesian archipelago during the rainy season. In January, flash floods hit the Indonesian city of Sumedang in West Java, killing 40 people.
In September last year, at least 11 people were killed in landslides on Borneo.
The country’s disaster agency estimates that 125 million Indonesians – almost half of the country’s population – live in areas that have been affected by landslides.
According to environmentalists, the disasters are often caused by deforestation.