LEMBATA, Indonesia (AP) – The number of dead in landslides in eastern Indonesia has risen to 140, with dozens still missing, officials said on Wednesday, while rain continued to hit the region and hamper searches.
The East Flores neighborhood on Adonara Island suffered the largest losses, 67 bodies recovered so far and six missing. The mud fell from the surrounding hills early Sunday, catching people asleep. Some were swept away by flash floods after overnight rains caused rivers to break their banks.
On nearby Lembata Island, rain from tropical cyclone Seroja sent solid lava from a volcanic eruption in November to collapse more than a dozen villages, killing at least 32 and leaving 35 unrecorded, according to the National Disaster Mitigation Agency.
Hundreds of police, soldiers and residents dug through the wreckage with their bare hands, shoveled and dug in search of those buried. Relatives complained Wednesday when they saw rescuers pull out a body wrapped in mud, place it on a bamboo stretcher and take it to the funeral.
“Please find my father and mother who are still buried … regardless of their condition,” Suzanna Tasoin shouted to rescuers struggling to dig up tons of volcanic material and rocks with agricultural tools in the village of Waimatan on Lembata Island: “We want to bury them with the respect they deserve.”
In total, landslides and floods have killed at least 140 people on several islands in Indonesia, as well as 27 people in neighboring East Timor. Thousands of homes have been damaged and thousands displaced by the weather, which is expected to continue until at least Friday as the storm heads south to Australia.
Rescue efforts were hampered by rain and the removal of the area, where roads and bridges were damaged in many places.
Rescue personnel with excavators and tons of food and medicine were deployed from the town of Makassar on the island of Sulawesi, but were prevented by bad weather and extremely high waves.
Five helicopters were helping to reach isolated areas of the islands, the head of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency, Doni Monardo, told reporters late Wednesday.
He said evacuees are in dire need of basic necessities, such as blankets, mats, tents, baby food and medical services.
The government has provided tens of thousands of anti-coronavirus masks, and Monardo said authorities will set up health posts in refugee camps to test people for the virus.
He said six seagoing ships, including a hospital ship carrying several goods, were due to arrive on Friday to improve the overcrowded hospitals and clinics in eastern Nusa Tenggara, one of Indonesia’s poorest provinces.
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Karmini reported from Jakarta, Indonesia.