JAKARTA (INDONESIA) – Flash floods and landslides have killed at least 16 people. Hundreds were displaced in a district on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, according to officials at the country’s disaster mitigation agency said on Wednesday.
Raditya Jati, a spokesman for the national disaster mitigation agency, said rescue officials were still looking for 23 people, who went missing after the floods struck the North Luwu district of South Sulawesi province.
Photographs from a village showed a damaged house and a truck partially submerged under thick mud, while a runway at a local airport was also covered by mud and debris.
Kompas TV said, “I hope we will be united in our recovery efforts,” Nurdin Abdullah, the governor of South Sulawesi.
Heavy rains had inundated three nearby rivers for several days prompting the evacuation of 655 people due to the floods, officials at the local disaster mitigation agency and search and rescue agency told.
Indonesia frequently gets affected from floods and landslides particularly during the rainy season. The situation is further worsened by the cutting down of forests.
Flooding also took the lives of 66 people in the Indonesian capital Jakarta in January, and is seen as the heaviest rain since records began.
(Photos syndicated via Reuters)
This story has been edited by BH staff and is published from a syndicated field.