Survivors in Indonesia were piecing back shattered lives yesterday, after devastating floods killed more than 1,500 people across four countries, with fears of fresh misery as more rain looms.
Indonesia has borne the brunt, with its toll rising to 837 dead and 545 missing, authorities said, many in Sumatra’s northern Aceh Province, where more than 800,000 people have been displaced.
Sri Lanka has reported 486 deaths, Thailand 276 and Malaysia two.
Photo: Reuters
Many survivors in Sumatra were counting the cost of the deluge that started last week, leading to destructive flash floods and landslides.
“Our house was covered by soil up to the ceiling,” 42-year-old government employee Rumita Laurasibuea said. “Around the house, there were piles of wood.”
Recovering from the flood’s impact “could take more than a year,” Rumita added.
Indonesia’s meteorological agency warned Aceh could see “very heavy rain” through today, with north and west Sumatra also at risk.
Indonesian flood victims said incoming rain was likely to bring fresh misery.
“We are still worried... If the rain comes again, where can we go? Where can we evacuate?” Rumita said.
In Sri Lanka, authorities said floodwaters had begun to recede, but residents face a mammoth cleanup.
In the central town of Gampola, residents worked to clear the mud and water damage.
“We are getting volunteers from other areas to help with this cleanup,” Muslim cleric Faleeldeen Qadiri said.
“It takes 10 men a whole day to clean one house,” a volunteer named Rinas said. “No one can do this without help.”
Two separate weather systems dumped massive rainfall on all of Sri Lanka, Sumatra, parts of southern Thailand and northern Malaysia last week.
While across Asia seasonal monsoons bring rainfall that farmers depend on, climate change is making the phenomenon more erratic, unpredictable and deadly across the region.
Environmentalists and the Indonesian government have pointed to the role forest loss played in the flash flooding and landslides that washed torrents of mud into villages and stranded residents on rooftops.
Indonesia is among the countries with the largest annual forest loss due to mining, plantations and fires, and has seen the clearance of large tracts of its lush rainforest over the past few decades.
Jakarta on Wednesday said it was revoking environmental permits of several companies suspected of worsening the disaster’s impact.
Eight companies are to be summoned on Monday next week in a probe, Indonesian Minister of Environment and Forestry Hanif Faisol Nurofiq said.
Should evidence show corporate involvement in illegal logging or land clearing, which aggravated the disaster, “investigations could escalate to criminal prosecution,” Hanif said.
The scale of the disaster has made relief efforts challenging.
Indonesia’s government this week said it could handle the fallout, despite a public outcry that not enough was being done.
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