(Tanah Datar) At least 44 people have died and 15 others are missing after floods and cold lava flows on the island of Sumatra, in western Indonesia, an official told AFP on Monday from the local disaster management agency.
Torrential rains that lasted for several hours Saturday evening fell in the Agam and Tanah Datar districts of western Sumatra, beginning around 10:30 p.m. local time (11:30 a.m. Eastern Time). and causing flash floods and cold lava flows from Mount Marapi, a volcano on the island.
“The number of dead people has been increased to 44,” announced Abdul Muhari, spokesperson for the national disaster management agency (BNPB), updating a previous death toll of 43.
Seventy-one houses were swept away and 125 were damaged, he added.
According to the head of the local Padang relief agency, Abdul Malik, among the bodies found were those of two children, aged three and eight.
Rescuers are still searching for 15 people still missing.
Residents said they heard stones rolling down the roads around their homes when the heavy rains fell. “My house was vibrating,” said Budi Rahmat, a 44-year-old farmer in Agam. “The only thing I thought about was saving my wife and children.”
PHOTO FACHRI HAMZAH, ASSOCIATED PRESS
A man walks among rubble near a house damaged by a flash flood in Agam, West Sumatra, May 13.
“My parents’ house was across the street from mine. [Ma mère] wanted to run out but didn’t have time, a large stone came crashing down [sur l’habitation]. His body was found two kilometers away. My sister is traumatized, just like her son,” Refki Amelia, a 39-year-old mother, who also lost her niece in Agam, told AFP.
Roads were transformed into muddy rivers, flooding homes and sweeping vehicles into a nearby river, as cold lava flowed from the Marapi volcano.
Ilham Wahab, an official with West Sumatra’s disaster management agency, encouraged “people to evacuate to relatives’ homes, which are safer” than tent shelters in case of heavy rain.
“We focus first on the search and rescue of victims, then on the protection of evacuees and vulnerable people,” he added.
About 130 people were evacuated to a primary school in Agam, while more than 2,000 others were evacuated to several sites in Tanah Datar, provincial governor Mahyeldi Ansharullah told reporters.
Cold lava is a magma formed by the various materials that make up the walls of a volcano: ash, sand and rocks. Under the effect of rain, these can mix and flow along the crater.
“Have mercy”
Authorities sent rescuers aboard inflatable boats to search for missing victims and to evacuate residents.
In Agam district, whose population exceeds 500,000 people, dozens of houses and public buildings suffered damage, according to the local disaster management agency.
In Tanah Datar, where around 370,000 inhabitants live, the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) indicated on Sunday that 84 homes, 16 bridges and two mosques had been damaged, as well as 20 hectares of rice fields.
PHOTO ALI NAYAKA, ASSOCIATED PRESS
View of Tanah Datar, May 13
Survivors described the horror they felt when the floods and landslides began.
“I heard thunder and a sound like boiling water. It was the sound of big stones falling,” Rina Devina, a housewife, told AFP, adding that three of her neighbors had been killed.
“It was pitch black, so I used my cell phone as a flashlight. The road was muddy, so I shouted “God, have mercy!” “again and again,” she added, referring to her evacuation to the office of a local official.
Indonesia is prone to landslides and flooding during the rainy season.
By 2022, around 24,000 people had been evacuated and two children had been killed in floods on the island of Sumatra, with conservationists blaming deforestation caused by logging for worsening the disaster.