International Courant
PADANG, Indonesia — Rescuers recovered extra our bodies on Monday after monsoon rains prompted flash flooding on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, sending down streams of chilly lava and dirt, killing 43 folks and leaving one other 15 lacking.
The heavy rain, together with a landslide of mud and chilly lava from Mount Marapi, prompted a river to overflow its banks.
The deluge swept by means of mountain villages alongside 4 districts in West Sumatra province simply earlier than midnight on Saturday. The floods swept away folks and inundated a whole lot of properties and buildings, whereas greater than 3,100 folks had been pressured to flee to momentary authorities shelters in Agam and Tanah Datar districts, mentioned Abdul Muhari, spokesman for the Nationwide Catastrophe Administration Company.
Chilly lava, also called lahar, is a mix of volcanic materials and pebbles that flows in rain down the slopes of a volcano.
Rescuers recovered extra our bodies on Monday, primarily from worst-hit villages in Agam and Tanah Datar districts, bringing the dying toll to 43, Muhari mentioned in an announcement. No less than 19 folks had been injured within the flash floods and rescuers had been looking for 15 villagers who had been reported lacking, he mentioned.
Tv reviews left relations wailing as they watched rescuers pull a mud-covered physique from a devastated hamlet. It was positioned in an orange and black bag and brought for burial.
Authorities struggled to get tractors and different heavy gear to the realm over washed-out roads after flash floods introduced mud and stones to the hilly hamlets, mentioned Abdul Malik, head of the search and rescue company in Padang, the provincial capital.
Tons of of police, troopers and residents dug by means of the rubble with their naked fingers, shovels and hoes, as rain, broken roads and thick mud and particles hampered aid efforts.
“The devastated space is so huge and complex that we urgently want extra excavators and dirt pumps,” mentioned Malik.
Flash floods on Saturday night additionally left main roads across the Anai Valley waterfall space in Tanah Datar district blocked by mud, chopping off entry to different cities, Padang Panjang police chief Kartyana Putra mentioned on Sunday.
Movies launched by the Nationwide Search and Rescue Company confirmed roads remodeled into murky brown rivers and villages lined in thick mud, rocks and uprooted bushes.
Heavy rains frequently trigger landslides and flash floods in Indonesia, an archipelago of greater than 17,000 islands the place tens of millions of individuals stay in mountainous areas or close to floodplains.
The catastrophe got here simply two months after heavy rains prompted flash floods and a landslide in West Sumatra, killing a minimum of 26 folks and leaving 11 others lacking.
A shocking eruption of Mount Marapi late final yr killed 23 climbers.
Marapi is understood for its sudden eruptions which can be tough to foretell as a result of its supply is shallow and near the summit, and the eruptions should not brought on by deep motion of magma, which causes tremors recorded on seismic displays, in keeping with Indonesian Heart for Volcanology and Geological Catastrophe Administration.
Marapi has been lively since an eruption in January 2024 that prompted no casualties. It’s considered one of greater than 120 lively volcanoes in Indonesia. The nation is vulnerable to seismic unrest as a consequence of its location on the Pacific ‘Ring of Hearth’, an arc of volcanoes and fault strains that encircle the Pacific Basin.
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Niniek Karmini contributed to this report from Jakarta, Indonesia.
