The people of Capar village, who were hit on Thursday by a mudflow evacuated to Windusakti village. Eighteen years ago, the people of Windusakti suffered a similar disaster.
By
ADITYA PUTRA PERDANA, MEGANDIKA WICAKSONO
·4 minutes read
Kompas/Totok Wijayanto
Local residents, with the help of a volunteer team, clear away mud on Sunday (25/2) from the mudflow that hit Cikaray hamlet in Pasirpanjang village, Salem, Brebes regency, Central Java. As of Sunday afternoon, the number of fatalities had reached 11 people, with seven people still missing.
The people of Capar village, Brebes regency, who were hit on Thursday by a mudflow evacuated to Windusakti village. Eighteen years ago, the people of Windusakti suffered a similar disaster. The local people are readily helping one another.
The mudflow that hit Capar village, Salem district, Brebes regency, Central Java, on Thursday night (22/2) has forced villagers to flee to Windusakti village. The disaster has reawakened the Windusakti people’s memories of a similar disaster that struck around 18 years ago. The bitter memories have raised the Windusakti people’s spirit to help their neighboring villagers.
Daska Sunarya, 66, clearly recalled the fateful day on Feb. 23, 2000, when the mudflow hit Windusakti. He lost his elder sister in the disaster. “Our village was buried by six meters of mud. We were forced to move everyone and built a new village from scratch at a new location,” said the former village head in Windusakti on Sunday (25/2).
The mudflow killed 34 villagers; 23 bodies of the victims remained unrecovered at the end of the search-and-rescue operation (Kompas, 10/3/2000).
The disaster forced the villagers to flee to Tembongraja, Windusakti’s closest neighboring village. After living there for a few months, they decided to start a new village at a new, safer location, some 8 kilometers from the site of their old village. State forestry company PT Perhutani provided the land in a land swap (tukar guling) deal.
Eighteen years later on the anniversary of that disaster, Feb. 23, another mudflow hit Capar village in Salem district on its western border with Kuningan regency, West Java. Capar’s 275 families, comprising a total of 724 people, fled to Windusakti.
Daska and many other Windusakti villagers believed that the disaster was God’s way to remind them to be grateful for being saved from the disaster 18 years ago. They felt it was their duty to help others in the same way that they were helped 18 years ago.
“The disaster 18 years ago left a huge mark on us. Lives were lost. Our village was paralyzed. We were forced to move to Tembongraja village. Now, it is time for us to help the Capar villagers who are suffering from the same disaster,” Daska said.
Paralyzed
One house has collapsed and another 50 flooded from the mudflow and landslide in Capar. Overland access to the village was cut off and four-wheeled vehicles cannot reach the village. Life in the village has been completely paralyzed.
The disaster was especially traumatic for Kusma, 82. At one corner of SDN Windusakti elementary school, which is serving as a shelter for the Capar villagers, he sat and stared emptily in shock. He could not believe that the 54-square-meter house that he had lived in for the past 13 years was gone.
Kusma said that the mudflow hit Capar village on Thursday at around 10 p.m. “I was sleeping when I heard a thundering sound and rushing water. As it turned, water and debris, including wood, logs and tree branches, flowed into my home,” he said.
Kusma then ran outside. Along with many of his neighbors, many of who were shouting for help, he ran to higher ground. His elderly body and legs tried hard to wade through the inundated village roads against the heavy current.
After he felt that he was safe, Kusma, who lives alone, tried to calm down. But then, unpleasant news arrived at midnight. “I was told that my house had collapsed. Everything I owned had been carried away, my clothes, my radio. All I have left is what I am wearing right now,” Kusma cried.
Didik, 37, another Capar resident, said the mudflow reached 50 centimeters high that night. Rushing water mixed with earth descended Mt. Bokok. The villagers remained awake and waited by the road. No one dared go back to bed for fear of a sudden landslide.
“A landslide had just occurred in Pasir Panjang village. On Friday morning, we were asked to move to Windusakti village, as Capar had become totally unsafe,” Didik said.
The Capar villagers’ trauma was slightly relieved by the warm welcome they received from Windusakti villagers. Everyone in Windusakti opened their doors to those affected by the disaster. Some drew up a list of the Capar evacuees to make sure that no one went missing.
Windusakti village head Dasan said that his village was the closest and safest for the people of Capar. “This is the humanitarian spirit of sharing with your brothers and sisters,” he said.
Brebes Regent Idza Priyanti said that the regency planned to relocate people whose houses were damaged by the landslides and flash floods in Pasir Panjang and Capar villages.
