Rescuers search for missing people as deadly Indonesia floods recede

A weeklong state of emergency has been declared for floods that have left at least 21 people dead.

Rescuers have been searching in rivers and the rubble of devastated villages for survivors of deadly flash floods that struck two provinces in Indonesia earlier this week, killing at least 23 people and leaving five missing, as waters began to recede.

Torrential rains for the last four days caused flooding and landslides in nine cities and districts of the tourist island of Bali and in East Nusa Tenggara province. Rising rivers submerged at least 120 neighbourhoods and resulted in a dozen landslides in several places, National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesperson Abdul Muhari said in a statement on Thursday, with the higher death toll reported by officials on Friday.

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Muhari said rescuers had retrieved seven more bodies as floods receded in Bali, bringing the death toll from floods on the island to 16. Rescue workers are still searching for a missing resident, he added.

A weeklong state of emergency was declared to mobilise additional resources.

As river levels returned to close to normal on Thursday, people in Denpasar, Bali’s capital, left crammed emergency shelters.

Authorities took advantage of the receding waters to begin clearing mud and removing piles of wet rubbish from the streets, while electricity was restored to tens of thousands of residences and businesses.

Indonesia is prone to flooding and landslides during the rainy season, which typically peaks between November and March. The recent rainfall is considered unusually heavy for September.

Suharyanto, head of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency, told a news conference late Wednesday that the threat of flooding in Bali is over.

He said up to 600 rescue workers, police and soldiers have been deployed since Wednesday to search for people still reported missing in Bali, as the floods have also damaged roads, bridges and other infrastructure.

By late Thursday, about 552 people remained crammed in government shelters in several districts in Bali, the agency said.

“The Indonesian Disaster Mitigation Agency blamed the heavy downpour, the landscape of Bali and tidal activity as the cause of the great flood,” said Al Jazeera’s Valdiya Barapotri, reporting from Badung Regency in Denpasar.

“However, Balinese see that there is more to the issue; the rapid growth overcharged by overtourism and mismanagement of urban planning and waste in Bali are seen as the root of the cause,” said Barapotri, standing before “a ruin of three shops that doubled as homes that collapsed in the flood”, resulting in the deaths of four people.

Barapotri added that, “Rivers and ricefields in Bali [have been] replaced by concrete, therefore Bali lost a lot of water shed and recharge area, so when the rain falls, which happens quite often in this tropical island, Bali is more prone to flooding.”

In East Nusa Tenggara province, dozens of rescuers were searching through a river around the remote village of Mauponggo in Hagekeo district, where floods left tonnes of mud, rocks and trees.

Rescuers on Thursday found the body of a 14-month-old child, one of two toddlers whom rescuers had been searching for, said Muhari. Four other bodies were pulled out of floodwaters or mud on Wednesday.

Local Disaster Mitigation Agency head Agustinus Pone said the severe weather and rugged terrain that hampered rescue efforts were exacerbated by the disruption of electricity, clean water, and telecommunications networks in 18 villages by flash floods.

Flooding and landslides in the area also destroyed two bridges, two government offices, a plantation and rice fields, and killed livestock, Pone said.

Source:

Al Jazeera and news agencies