Survivors recall terror of landslides from North Sumatra cyclone

North Tapanuli, North Sumatra – Sri Yuni Pardede, 20, was with her family at home when a thunderous crash jolted them awake at 2:30am (09:30 GMT). “My mother-in-law said it was just thunder. I said, ‘No, the house is shaking.’ Not long after, boulders came crashing down,” she recalled.

“My younger sibling was staying over. When the landslide happened, I kicked him to wake him up. If we had all been sleeping, we would have died in that house.” Grabbing her daughter, Eleanor, Sri fled to the nearby church. From the hilltop, they watched in horror as another landslide completely destroyed their home.

For a week now, the family has taken refuge at the church alongside hundreds of other displaced victims. The cyclone-triggered floods and landslides have killed at least 770 people, according to government data, with 463 people still missing.

“Praise God, we were all saved. Our belongings can be replaced, what matters is that the children and everyone else survived,” she said. The trauma, however, lingers. “Whenever I hear a sound, like a door opening or closing, I get scared. Any loud noise shocks me. On our first day at the church, I heard the noise of a helicopter. I screamed; ‘We’re going to die!’ I nearly fainted because I thought it was another landslide.”

Sri hopes for government assistance with relocation. “We cannot return there. We don’t want to live there any more. We are too traumatised,” she explained.