Indonesian rescuers struggled on Thursday to pull out bodies and reach survivors following Central Java landslides, as floods blocked roads and damaged bridges in the area where over 80 people are feared dead, officials said.
Thousands of people have been left homeless after their homes were submerged by heavy floods or buried by landslides caused by days of torrential rains in villages near the Bengawan Solo river, which lies about 500km from the capital, Jakarta.
Rescue workers were trying to get heavy equipment needed to unearth bodies from the steep slopes of Tawangmangu village, the worst-hit area, where 28 people are thought to be buried under thick mud, a local police chief said.
Metro TV showed victims’ relatives wailing after they found out their loved ones were among those killed. One of them fainted.
”We are only left with basic tools, such as spades and ploughs, yet we face a seven-to nine-metre blanket of mud,” local police chief Rikwanto told Reuters by telephone.
Authorities have unearthed 38 bodies from the Karang Anyar district while one person was found dead and 14 were missing after landslides and floods in Wonogiri and Sukoharjo districts, said Sarjiono, a provincial government spokesman.
Landslides are frequent in Indonesia, where tropical downpours can quickly soak hillsides and years of deforestation often mean there is little vegetation to hold the soil.
Rikwanto said deforestation had left the hilly area of the Karang Anyar district prone to landslides, although some barren land had been turned into vegetable farms.
Around 1 000 rescue officers, police, military personnels and villagers are aiding the search and rescue operations, Heru Aji Pratomo, head of the local rescue team, told Reuters.
”We sprayed water on the site hoping that water will wash the soil away and uncover the bodies,” Pratomo said by telephone. ”But unless we get the excavator up there, finding the bodies will take a long time.”
Thousands of villagers who lost their homes to floods or landslides have moved into temporary shelters in offices and schools and into tents set up by the rescue teams. – Reuters