The death toll from floods and landslides in Indonesia’s South Sulawesi province neared 250 on Saturday with another 100 still missing and thousands homeless, police and officials said.
The disaster is the latest tragedy to afflict the world’s fourth-most-populous nation in the past few years, including the 2004 Asian tsunami, which killed 168 000 people, and an earthquake last month on Java that killed 5 800.
Rescue workers had uncovered 248 bodies by Saturday morning, said Eko Wahyudi, a police officer from worst-hit Sinjai district.
”There are about 100 people missing,” Wahyudi said.
The spokesperson for the joint disaster-relief team in the area, Marine Second Lieutenant Mardiono, confirmed the death toll, the state Antara news agency reported.
Flash floods rushed through at least six districts in South Sulawesi, located about 1 600km north-east of the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, on Tuesday after several days of torrential rain.
Rescue workers have struggled to find the dead, hampered by the remote location of some of the affected areas, deadly landslides and heavy seas off the coast where many bodies were thought to have been swept.
Efforts continued on Saturday but more earthmovers were needed to speed up the task of sifting through the rubble, said Aris, a relief official on the scene.
He said six affected villages were still isolated as road access to the region had been blocked by mudslides.
”We are going to airlift workers to these villages because they badly need food and medicine,” Aris said.
Sinjai district chief Andi Rudiyanto, quoted by Antara, said that rescuers had managed to drop food into one of the six villages.
Rubber boats would be used to distribute relief aid to the other five should there be a shortage of helicopters, he said.
Vice-President Yusuf Kalla visited Sinjai on Saturday and urged victims to remain patient as the local government struggled to get aid to those in need.
Accompanied by several ministers, Kalla promised that the central government would send more equipment and assistance. South Sulawesi Governor Amin Syam told Kalla that more than 4 000 homes across six districts had been destroyed.
Kalla’s visit itself hindered rescue efforts as workers were not allowed to enter the Biring Ngere area to pick up relief supplies during the visit for security reasons, Antara reported.
The United Nations Children’s Fund said on Friday that one-third of the victims were children. The agency also said it was airlifting emergency supplies of hygiene equipment and water containers to the affected areas.
At least 150ha of coffee and clove plantations have been destroyed by the floods, along with more than 3 300ha of rice fields, some just about to be harvested.
About 2 500 farm animals were also killed.
Flash floods and landslides have long plagued Indonesia and have been increasing in frequency in recent years. Environmentalists say repeated disasters have occurred largely because of rampant deforestation. — Sapa-AFP