At least 58 killed in Indonesia's floods

Flash floods and mudslides triggered by days of torrential downpours tore through mountainside villages in Indonesia's easternmost province, killing at least 58 people and leaving thousands homeless, disaster officials said on Sunday, according to The Associated Press.

The floods in Papua province's Jayapura district submerged hundreds of houses in neck-high water and mud, said National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho. The floods and slides also destroyed roads and bridges, hampering rescue efforts.

Nugroho said 58 bodies had been pulled from the mud and wreckage of crumpled homes by Sunday. Another 74 people were hospitalized, many with broken bones and head wounds.

The dead included three children who drowned after the floods began late on Saturday.

He said the number of dead and injured will likely increase since many affected areas have not been reached.

"We are overwhelmed by too many injuries," said Haerul Lee, the head of Jayapura health office, adding that some medical facilities had been hit by power outages. "We can't handle it alone."

Papua's provincial administration has declared a two-week emergency in order to get assistance from the central government.

Video footage showed rescuers administering oxygen to a victim who appeared trapped beneath a fallen tree.

Uprooted trees and other debris were strewed across muddy roads, while at Jayapura's small airport a propeller plane lay partly crushed on a runway.

"The rain started last night and went on until around 1:00 am this morning," Lilis Puji Hastuti, a 29-year-old mother of two young children in Sentani, told Agence France-Presse.

"Our house was flooded with thick mud... we immediately grabbed our valuables and ran to a neighbor's (two-story) house to seek refuge.

"It's hard to get out of the area because many roads are blocked ...I'm worried, sad and scared all at one time," she added.

In Sentani, tents have been set up to take in flood victims and treat the wounded.

Papua shares a border with independent Papua New Guinea on a large island just north of Australia.

Flooding is common in Indonesia, especially during the rainy season, which runs from October to April.

In January, floods and landslides killed at least 70 people on Sulawesi Island, while earlier this month hundreds in West Java province were forced to evacuate when torrential rains triggered severe flooding.

Comprising 17,000 islands, Indonesia is one of the most disaster-prone nations on earth, straddling the Pacific Ring of Fire, where tectonic plates collide.

Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are common.

In December, the western part of Java Island was slammed by a deadly volcano-triggered tsunami that killed about 400 people.

(China Daily 03/18/2019 page11)