Landslides, floods hit Indonesia's Java island; 10 dead, 2 missing

Indonesian rescuers recovered 10 bodies that were swept away in flash floods or buried under tons of mud and rocks that hit hilly villages on the country's main island of Java, officials said Monday. Two people are still missing.

Torrential rains since last week have caused rivers to burst their banks, tearing through more than 170 villages in Sukabumi district of West Java province, as mud, rocks and trees tumbled down mountainside hamlets, said Lt Col Yudi Hariyanto, who heads a rescue command post in Sukabumi.

Landslides, flash floods and strong winds devastated 172 villages and forced more than 3,000 people to flee to temporary government shelters, Hariyanto said. Authorities have warned nearly 1,000 people to evacuate as more than 400 houses are threatened by extreme weather.

 

The disasters also destroyed 31 bridges, 81 roads and 539 hectares of rice fields, while 1,170 houses were flooded up to the roof. Extreme weather has also damaged more than 3,300 other houses and buildings, the local Disaster Management Agency said.

Rescue workers on Monday pulled out 10 bodies in the worst-hit villages of Tegalbuleud, Simpenan and Ciemas, including three children, and rescuers are searching for two villagers who are reportedly still missing, Hariyanto said.

Videos circulating on social media showed flash floods caused by heavy downpours in Sukabumi swept away almost everything in their path, including cars, motorbikes, buffaloes and cows.

Footage released by West Java's Search and Rescue Agency showed roads that were transformed into murky brown rivers and villages covered by thick mud, rocks and uprooted trees as soldiers, police and rescue workers pulled mud-caked bodies from a devastated hamlet.

Seasonal rain from about October to March frequently causes flooding and landslides in Indonesia, an archipelago of 17,000 islands where millions of people live in mountainous areas or near fertile flood plains.

Last month, a landslide and flash floods triggered by heavy downpours hit Indonesia's North Sumatra province, leaving 20 dead and two missing. A landslide in the region also hit a tourist bus that killed nine people.