Flash floods kill at least 58 in Indonesia’s Papua province - As 35 tourists are officially believed trapped after landslides

Abiodun OBA

At least 58 people were killed, dozens injured and more than 4,000, displaced by flash floods and landslides triggered by torrential rain on Sunday in Indonesia’s easternmost province of Papua.

A search for more possible victims was under way in the town of Sentani, which was hit by flash floods late on Saturday.

Fifty-one people were killed and 74 injured there, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman of the national disaster agency, told a news briefing.

Heavy rain caused landslides in the nearby provincial capital of Jayapura, killing seven there, Nugroho said.

Soldiers pulled alive a 5-month old baby from under the rubble of his house and took him to hospital, Papua military spokesman Muhammad Aidi said.

The number of victims “will probably increase because the evacuation process is still taking place and not all affected areas have been reached,” Nugroho said.

About 4,150 people are sheltering in six evacuation centers, he said.

Hundreds of houses, three bridges and a Twin Otter airplane parked at the airport were damaged by the floods. The Sentani airport, the province’s main transport hub, remained open.

TV footage showed mud and large logs on Sentani’s main roads after floodwaters receded.

Disaster authorities have warned local governments of flash flood risks due to deforestation in the mountains surrounding the town, Nugroho said, adding that in 2018 Jakarta sent seedlings intended for tree-planting.

“Forest destruction in the Cyclops Mountains has increased for use as firewood and to turn the land into plantations,” Nugroho said.

“Since 2018 we have warned the Jayapura government to be careful of flash flood risks because of this deforestation,” he added.

“We hope they all survive. We cannot be sure yet, the evacuation is still underway,” Rum said.

He could not confirm the nationality of those who died or were rescued. A series of quakes and aftershocks killed nearly 500 people in Lombok last year and caused damages to buildings and public infrastructure worth an estimated total of $500 million.

In a separate incident, flash floods and landslides triggered by torrential rain in the easternmost province of Papua have killed at least 58 people, injured dozens and displaced more than 4,000, authorities said on Sunday.

Meanwhile, about 35 foreign and domestic tourists are believed to be trapped and two others dead after landslides hit a waterfall site on Indonesia’s tourist island of Lombok on Sunday, a disaster agency official said.

Two moderate earthquakes struck Lombok, triggering the landslides, when around 40 Malaysian and domestic tourists were visiting the Tiu Kelep waterfall, north of the island, Muhammad Rum, head of West Nusa Tenggara disaster agency told Kompas TV.

Search and rescue efforts have only managed to evacuate three of the 40 and two were found dead, Rum said.