At least 17 dead, thousands displaced after severe Indonesia floods
Jakarta, Apr 28: At least 17 people are dead and nine missing after days of heavy rain-triggered floods and landslides on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, authorities said Sunday.
Some 12,000 people have been evacuated while hundreds of buildings, bridges and roads have been damaged by the severe weather which affected nine districts or towns across Bengkulu province, officials said.
The waters have receded in some places but officials warned the full extent of the damage was not yet known and some areas were still cut off.
"The impact of this disaster may increase," national disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said, adding that several people were also injured in the flooding.
"Landslides and floods could happen again if rainfall is high," he said.
A "secondary disaster" in the form of skin diseases and acute respiratory infection due to poor hygiene and a lack of clean water was possible, he added.
Aerial images showed swollen rivers that burst their banks and inundated settlements in some parts of the province.
Public kitchens and evacuation shelters have been set up to cater to about 13,000 people affected by the flooding, while search and rescue teams try to reach hard-hit areas with rubber boats.
"The distribution of aid has been hampered because road access has been cut off by the floods and landslides," Nugroho said, adding excavators were being used to clear debris from roads.
Landslides and floods are common in Indonesia, especially during the monsoon season between October and April, when rains lash the vast Southeast Asian archipelago.
Flooding in parts of the Indonesian capital Jakarta during the week killed at least two people and forced more than 2,000 to evacuate their homes.
Residents of Bogor, a satellite city of Jakarta, had to contend with about 14 pythons that were set loose from a private property due to the high waters.
Six of the snakes which were as long as four metres (13 feet) have been found, but the remaining eight remain on the loose, officials said.
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Seven killed in B'luru govt hospital wall collapse, CM orders probe
Bengaluru (PTI): Seven people, including a child, were killed and seven others injured when the compound wall of the city's Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital collapsed due to heavy rains here on Wednesday, police said.
Officials had initially said three children were killed, but the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) later clarified that only a six-year old girl was among the deceased.
The victims included those from Kerala, and had come here as part of a study tour.
When heavy rains, coupled with strong winds and a hailstorm, battered the area, victims taking shelter near a wall were trapped when it suddenly collapsed. Seven people were killed on the spot.
Police and emergency services personnel rushed to the spot with an earthmover to bring out the bodies and the injured from the debris with the help of other citizens.
Learning about the incident, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah visited the spot along with the Greater Bengaluru Authority Chief Commissioner M Maheshwar Rao and Bengaluru Police Commissioner Seemant Kumar Singh to take stock of the situation.
Siddaramaiah took the GBA officials to task for the tragedy.
Briefing reporters after the spot inspection, the chief minister said, "Seven people have died....seven people are injured. All of them are stable. They are all out of danger. I have told the doctors to provide treatment free of cost."
"Rs 5 lakh solatium will be given to the kin of each deceased. Because, unfortunately, those who died are very poor people — traders, street vendors," he added.
Siddaramaiah said an inquiry will be conducted to find out why the wall collapsed.
"We will conduct an inquiry to see whether the engineers are at fault. If they are found responsible, action will be taken against them immediately," he said.
According to the CM, there was civil work going on inside the compound wall. The contractor was dumping soil against the compound wall.
He said that due to the pressure of soil dumped against it, the wall might have collapsed.
"Prima facie, it appears to have fallen due to that pressure. So I have asked the engineers — the Executive Engineer and Assistant Executive Engineer — whether they had checked if it had become weak or not," Siddaramaiah said.
No one knew there would be heavy and untimely rains, the CM said, adding that these were pre-monsoon rains.
Deputy CM and Minister in charge of Bengaluru, D K Shivakumar, who was in Kanakapura in Bengaluru South district, rushed to the city and visited the spot for inspection.
Speaking to reporters, he said some people took shelter against the wall as the rain started, due to which they died.
"I am deeply pained to learn about this incident. Such things should not have happened. Many trees have fallen, and vehicles were damaged. I will direct officials to cut the weak trees because there was a risk of such tragedies happening again during the monsoon".
According to him, four people from Kerala were affected, of whom two were killed in this tragedy.
"We will conduct the postmortem at the earliest and send the bodies to Kerala," Shivakumar said.
Officials in Kerala's Ernakulam said two members of Kudumbashree, Smitha and Latha, died in the wall collapse. They were natives of Ramamangalam in Ernakulam.
The Kudumbashree group had gone there as part of a study tour.
Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, R Ashoka, said the loss of innocent lives—children, street vendors and pedestrians who had sought shelter from the rain—is not just a natural calamity or accident; "it is a state-sponsored disaster born out of sheer administrative negligence."
"How many more lives must be sacrificed at the altar of poor infrastructure and civic apathy? While the Congress government indulges in tall claims of 'Brand Bengaluru,' the crumbling walls of a premier government hospital in the heart of the city tell a different, more lethal story. For this Congress Government, it seems the lives of the poor and the common man are disposable," he posted on 'X'.
BJP's State President B Y Vijayendra asked the Congress government in Karnataka to take responsibility for the incident, urging them to provide treatment to the injured and compensation to the families of the deceased.
