At least 18 people were killed, five others went missing, and tens of thousands were forced to leave their homes in sudden floods and a landslide on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, according to a new toll reported today, Saturday, by a local official.
Heavy rains caused floods and a landslide in the Besisir Selatan area in West Sumatra province, forcing about 46,000 people to go to temporary shelter centers.
“The bodies of 18 people were found. There are five missing,” Doni Gosrizal, acting director of the Besiser Selatan Disaster Management Agency, said in a press statement.
It was announced, in a previous toll on Saturday, that ten people were killed and ten others were missing.
He explained that the remnants of floods and landslides are hampering the rescue operations currently underway.
As of Saturday night, electricity was still cut off in several parts of Besser Selatan as a result of the disaster.
A landslide destroyed at least 14 homes, and floods swept away more than 20,000 homes and led to the collapse of eight bridges, according to the statement.
In the Padang Pariaman region, also in West Sumatra, heavy rains between Thursday and Friday caused rivers, torrents, and a landslide to overflow, killing at least three people, according to another statement.
Indonesia regularly experiences landslides in the rainy season (between November and March).
Last December, dozens of homes were swept away in a landslide and torrents that also destroyed a hotel at Lake Toba in Sumatra, killing at least two people.
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