Flash Floods Kill at least 16, Displace Hundreds in Indonesia

Flash floods and landslides have killed at least 16 people and displaced hundreds in a district on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, officials at the country’s disaster mitigation agency said on Wednesday.

Search and rescue officials were still looking for 23 people missing after the floods struck North Luwu District of South Sulawesi Province, said Raditya Jati, spokesperson for the National Disaster Mitigation Agency.

In one village, photographs showed a damaged house and a truck partially submerged in thick mud, while a runway at the local airport was swamped with mud and debris.

“I hope we will be united in our recovery efforts,” Nurdin Abdullah, the governor of South Sulawesi, said on Kompas TV.

Heavy rainfall swollen three neighboring rivers for many days, culminating in the evacuation of 655 residents from the flooding, representatives from the local emergency prevention department and the search and rescue service told Reuters.

Indonesia also suffers from floods and landslides, especially during the rainy season, although the situation is also exacerbated by the loss of forests.

In January, Flooding also killed 66 people in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, in the wake of some of the worst rainfall since records started.