More than 70 people died after flash floods and landslides that swept through eastern Indonesia and neighboring East Timor on Sunday, officials said, with warnings that the number of victims could increase further.
Torrential rain has wreaked havoc and destruction on the islands that stretch from Flores Island, Indonesia, to Timor-Leste, a small nation east of the Indonesian archipelago.
The flood and subsequent landslides caused the dams to overflow, submerging thousands of houses and leaving 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 around 42 people are still missing,” Raditya Djati, spokesman for Indonesia’s disaster management agency, told MetroTV.
Houses, bridges and roads flooded with mud in the municipality of East Flores, where rescue workers struggled to reach a remote and severely hit area due to heavy rains and waves.
In Timor-Leste, 11 people were killed by the floods in the capital Dili, officials said. “We are still looking for areas impacted by natural disasters,” said Joaquim José Gusmão dos Reis Martins, Secretary of State for Civil Protection of Timor-Leste.
The death toll and injuries may still rise, officials warned.
East Flores vice-regent, Agustinus Payong Boli, estimated that there were 60 victims in his municipality.
“Most of them, 55, are in the village Lemanele. Many people died here because the village was hit by landslides and floods, ”he told Agence France-Presse, providing figures not yet confirmed by national authorities.
Lemanele’s images showed houses engulfed, debris covering entire roads, fallen trees and damaged power lines.
In Lembata, an island halfway between Flores and Timor, parts of the affected villages have been displaced by a mountain slope and close to the coast, according to an AFP journalist at the scene. Local authorities have deployed heavy equipment to reopen roads that had been cut.
The injured victims were evacuated to neighboring villages that were not affected by the floods. Images from Lembata showed people walking barefoot through the mud, evacuating victims of houses collapsed on makeshift stretchers.
Separately, on Sunday, two people died in major floods in the city of Bima, in the neighboring province of West Nusa Tenggara, according to the disaster agency.
Dams in four subdistricts also overflowed, submerging nearly 10,000 houses in Bima after a nine-hour rain, said Jati.
Fatal landslides and flash floods are common throughout 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 died in landslides in Borneo.
The country’s disaster agency estimated that 125 million Indonesians – almost half of the country’s population – live in areas at risk of landslides.
Disasters are often caused by deforestation, according to environmentalists.