Floods and landslides triggered by torrential rain have killed at least 111 people in Indonesia’s South Sulawesi province and left a further 101 missing, an official said on Wednesday.
The disaster, which has hit at least seven districts in the province after two days of torrential rain, is the latest in a series of similar tragedies to hit the world’s biggest archipelago this year.
Saktianto, an officer at the South Sulawesi search-and-rescue agency, said the latest report from Sinjai, the worst-hit district, showed 103 people had been killed and 99 were still missing.
Saktianto said floods killed 64 people while landslides claimed another 39 lives there.
Another two people were killed in Bantaeng district and another in Bone district, while two others were missing. Six of those missing earlier were found, local officials said.
The district police chief in Bulukumba district said five people had died there.
Sinjai district spokesperson Budiman said some of the victims will be buried in a mass grave because families could not take care of their dead.
”A number of families have asked the district government to take care of the corpses,” he was quoted as saying by the state-run Antara news agency.
At the hospital in Sinjai about 15 bodies were laid out, including children as young as five, as relatives cried and clutched at bodies. Some became hysterical.
Budiman said the death toll would likely increase, saying some flood-hit areas could not be reached as roads were blocked by landslides.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono expressed condolences for the deaths.
”The most important thing is to treat the injured,” he said according to Antara.
Residents sifted through what remained of their belongings after the floods swept through their homes.
Police, the military and others were searching for survivors, Muhidin, a search-and-rescue official in the South Sulawesi capital of Makassar, told Agence France-Presse. The government on Wednesday dispatched aid for the victims. Social Affairs Minister Bachtiar Chamsyah said sarongs, blankets, biscuits, medicine, body bags and medical staff were to be flown in.
The minister told reporters he had also ordered local social welfare offices to distribute 100 tons of rice to the affected districts.
Antara reported that the meteorological office in Makassar warned of more heavy rains over the next three days.
The weather cleared by Wednesday morning, however, and many residents were returning to their homes, the agency said.
Flash floods and landslides in Indonesia are not unusual, although monsoon rains typically peak in January.
In April floods and landslides triggered by monsoon rains killed at least 23 people in East Java.
At least 12 people were killed in similar disasters in January on other islands, while more than 150 people lost their lives in two separate landslides on Java. — AFP
