Floods kill 56 in Indonesia

JAKARTA - At least 56 people were killed and dozens of others were missing and feared drowned after floods swept through villages in Indonesia’s eastern province of West Papua, officials said Tuesday.

Hundreds of residents fled their homes Monday, said Mujiarto, head of the Health Ministry’s crisis centre. Several bridges were swept away by the floods that followed heavy rains in Wasior district.

Welfare Minister Agung Laksono was quoted by the state-run Antara news agency as confirming that he received reports of “up to 56 people dead” from the floods and dozens of others injured.

Other officials gave varying totals.

“Up to 34 bodies have been found by Tuesday afternoon while 60 other bodies could not be evacuated because they were buried under tonnes of mud, stones and logs,” said Habiba Halim from the Indonesian Red Cross. “Rescue workers lack heavy equipment to evacuate the bodies under tonnes of mud and rocks, as well as piles of logs.”

Halim said more than 300 people were seriously injured and only some were airlifted to the provincial capital of Manokwari. He added that mud up to 1 metre deep had covered the city’s airport, forcing authorities to shut it down.

Health Ministry officials in Jakarta said at least 103 other villagers were missing and feared dead in the flooding.

Dozens of homes and buildings were destroyed or damaged, and communications were curtailed, ministry spokesman Tritarayati said.

Paramedics were sent from Jakarta to join doctors and health officials from various districts in the province, along with more body bags and medicines, officials said.

Local military officers said they expected the death toll to rise.

Rescue workers from other districts, equipped with heavy machinery and inflatable boats, were deployed to help evacuation efforts, an official from the national disaster management centre said.

Environmentalists say logging and a failure to re-forest denuded land in the world’s fourth most-populous country are often to blame for frequent floods.