Asia-Pacific

9 killed, 13 missing in flash flood in W Indonesia

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-03-11 16:00

JAKARTA - Flash floods on Thursday evening killed nine people and swept away 13 others, and seriously damaged 160 houses in Pidie district of Aceh in northern tip of Sumatra island, local disaster management agency official said on Friday.

The floods took place at about 21:30 am Jakarta time (1430 GMT) at the district located at the slope of a mountain in Aceh, Said Ibnu Sa'dan head of operational unit of the agency in Aceh.

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"There were rains at the mountain, then huge amount of waters came down and hit the houses at the slope. Nine people were killed and 12 or 13 others went missing," he said by phone from Aceh.

Rescue for the 13 missing persons have been underway, involving rescue officers and local communities, he said.

The disaster had forced hundreds of people left their home and taken shelters, said Sa'dan. Local authorities built makeshift tents and posts to help the evacuees. Logistic and medicine have been provided by the local government for the internally displaced persons, he said.

"We will build some makeshift tents for the evacuees whom we predict are about hundreds, and to set up posts to provide logistic and medicine," he said.

Extreme weather is forecast to still happen this year in Indonesia. Lacking of forest-covered areas has been blamed for the frequent floods and landslides in Indonesia, which has been struggled to address deforestation by planting more than one billion trees recently.