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58 Dead In Indonesia Floods And Landslides
Palu, Indonesia (AFP) July 24, 2007 Indonesian search and rescue workers struggled in bad weather Tuesday to reach survivors in flooded and landslide-hit Central Sulawesi, as the death toll from the disaster rose to 58. The floods have affected some 36,000 people and are the latest in a string of natural catastrophes to hit Indonesia, where activists have long warned that logging and a failure to reforest denuded land will lead to repeat tragedies. The head of the Central Sulawesi disaster control task force, Frits Abbas, said that 58 people had been killed, but the bodies of most victims were still buried under debris. Days of heavy rains sparked floods that inundated Central Sulawesi's Morowali district on Sunday, demolishing hundreds of homes and severing transport links. On Tuesday, two-metre (-yard) high waters also swept through Banggai district to the east, said Rustam Pakaya, from the health ministry's crisis centre in the Indonesian capital Jakarta. The floods have affected some 20,000 people in 16 villages there, he said, while the homes of some 16,000 others in Morowali were inundated. Entire villages remain cut off in the area, located about 1,600 kilometres (1,000 miles) northeast of Jakarta, with torrents of mud and water wiping out access bridges. People are taking refuge in mosques and the homes of relatives, Pakaya said. A provincial health office team travelled to the area by raft and had arrived but there were no other details immediately available from them, while the Morowali police chief was also in the area, he said. A Hercules transport plane laden with six tonnes of medical supplies and food left Jakarta at dawn Tuesday, while three doctors travelling to the affected area from a regional hospital were stranded en route, he added. Search and rescue efforts were hampered by flooded and blocked roads into affected areas, while poor weather made flights and sea travel dangerous, the disaster control task force's Abbas said. "We are not even sure whether teams of soldiers and police dispatched to the area have arrived," he said. The teams left from various towns in the region on Monday. In Uweruru village, a landslide hit on Sunday and a second followed after dusk Monday, burying several buildings, including a small mosque being used as a temporary shelter for survivors, district police chief Sri Suharsono said. "But we have as yet no report on the number of victims buried in this landslide," Suharsono said. Pakaya said later Tuesday that 16 bodies had been recovered in the village and around 30 more were believed buried there, while reports of 10 deaths in a second village were being followed up. Flooding in Central Sulawesi, where illegal logging is reported to be rampant, submerged 16 villages in May and also forced thousands to flee to higher ground. The south of Sulawesi was hit by floods in June last year, leaving 250 dead and 100 missing. Deforestation reduces the capacity of the ecosystem to regulate water and also leads to soil erosion and landslides.
Source: Agence France-Presse Related Links the missing link Bringing Order To A World Of Disasters When the Earth Quakes A world of storm and tempest
Emergency Committee Meets In London As UK Faces Worst Floods In 60 Years
London (AFP) Jul 24, 2007Britain's emergency contingencies committee met Monday night to discuss further measures to combat the worst flooding in 60 years, which Prime Minister Gordon Brown linked to climate change. Large swathes of central and western England were submerged as rivers swelled and burst their banks during four days of heavy and persistent rain, leaving thousands without clean water or electricity and facing the prospect of more rain. |
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