Hundreds of rescuers using heavy machinery equipment and bare
hands removed the rubbles of houses found 35 missing persons after
landslides destroyed Tawangmangu district at Karanganyar regency of
Central Java province on Wednesday, disaster management agency
said.
An official of the agency at the field Anggit M.S. said that
those taking part in the rescue operation included those from the
national rescue agency (SAR), soldiers, police, students and other
survivors.
Some other rescuers searched a river passing through the
district to look for possible residents swept into it, said
Anggit.
The landslides killed 61 people, said the official.
Two bodies have been discovered since the morning, both of them
are dead, he said.
"The searching of the other 35 has been underway," Anggit told
Xinhua from the district.
He said that flood had also inundated a number of houses,
disrupted transport facilities and left hundreds of people
displaced.
"Flood has submerged houses up to three to five meters, and
roads have been buried by soils, which paralyzed transportation,"
he said.
"Hundreds of residents could not stay at their houses as they
were destroyed," he added.
Head of the emergency unit of the National Disaster Management
Agency Sugeng Triutomo said that relief had been distributed from
the Karanganyar regency to the survivors. If they were
insufficient, more would be sent from Jakarta.
"The Karanganyar administrators have sent logistics, tents and
medicine needed for the residents," he told Xinhua.
Triutomo said that an assessment for the further needs of the
survivors has been carried out now.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Wednesday asked
relevant officials to speed up work of combating the disaster.
Indonesia has been frequently hit by flood and landslide due to
lack of forest-covered areas, which could not hold excessive waters
during heavy rains.
Activists have already warned that the forests in the area are
under threat from large-scale forest destruction.
Indonesia, which is losing its forests at the world's fastest
rate, is struggling to preserve its rain-forest from
deforestation.
(Xinhua News Agency December 26, 2007)
