Rescue workers stepped up a hunt on Friday for victims of landslides and floods that claimed scores of lives on Indonesia’s Java Island and left thousands homeless, an official said.
The landslides smashed through homes, burying families alive, in the early hours of Wednesday after monsoon rains lashed Central and East Java provinces this week and also triggered devastating floods.
More than 1 000 rescue workers resumed a search for bodies for a third day on Friday in Central Java’s worst-hit Karanganyar district, the head of the local disaster management centre, Heru Aji Pratomo, said.
”We have intensified the search today [Friday] by deploying more rescuers,” he said.
So far 49 bodies have been pulled from wreckage, with about 17 people still missing, Pratomo said.
Pratomo said that more earth-movers were expected to arrive in the hilly region soon. Landslides blocked their way initially, but then winding roads and poor weather hindered the progress of more heavy-duty equipment, he said.
”We have a small-scale excavator to help the search, but more will be arriving today,” he said.
An Agence France-Presse correspondent at the scene said that the bodies of a couple and two children were extracted from deep mud on Friday morning.
He said about half the workers were troops drafted in from the military commands in nearby districts.
In adjacent Wonogiri district, the head of the disaster management centre said seven bodies had been recovered and 10 remained missing. Only manual equipment was being used in the hunt, he said.
Most bodies in the disaster so far have been recovered by workers using their hands and crude equipment such as planks of wood.
In East Java, where raging floods swept away a major bridge, police have said about 50 people were estimated to be missing based on witness accounts of vehicles on the bridge at the time.
Alit Suyasa, the operational unit chief of Madiun district police, said only three people have been reported missing by their families, but ”police have to work based on witness reports”.
He said eight motorcycles and five bicycles had been recovered and their owners were safe.
”The flood waters have receded by a quarter, which is making it easier to search for bodies,” he added.
The Health Ministry and Red Cross said late on Thursday that a total of 73 000 people had been displaced in the two provinces, though figures were still being tallied.
Landslides and flooding are common in Indonesia during the rainy season, which hits a peak from December to February.
Activists say unchecked deforestation is to blame, although officials have said the latest disasters occurred in steep residential areas that were unstable anyway. — AFP
