Disasters Keep Occurring

KOMPAS/ISMAIL ZAKARIA

Three vehicles, consisting of one bus, one minibus, and one truck, are dragged out of the road by landslide materials in the Sitinjau Laut area, Lubuk Kilangan sub-district, about 10.6 kilometers east of Padang, West Sumatra, as seen on Friday (14/12/2018). One of the local residents died, one severely injured, and another one slightly wounded in the incident. The landslide, that occurred on Thursday night, cut off the traffic lane from Padang to Solok and other areas in West Sumatra and to other provinces such as Jambi, South Sumatra, and Lampung for almost 12 hours.

PADANG, KOMPAS -- The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) has predicted that Sumatra and parts of Java will experience extremely heavy rains for the next week. Currently, heavy rains also fall over Kalimantan.

Two separate landslides claimed lives in Sumatra in the past week as disaster risk is expected to persist due to continuous and extremely heavy rains over Sumatra and parts of Java.

On Thursday (13/12/2018) evening, a landslide took the life of a bus passenger on the Padang-Jambi route in Sitinjau Laut, Padang, West Sumatra. On Wednesday, eight were buried under a landslide in Sigura-Gura, Toba Samosir, North Sumatra.

In Sitinjau Laut, the landslide, which measured around 30-meters-long and 3-meters- high, caused 10-kilometers of traffic jams both ways.

Road access from Padang to Solok, which it went on to Sawahlunto, Sijunjung, Dharmasraya and Jl. Lintas Tengah Sumatra, was cut off. Jl. Lintas Tengah Sumatra connects West Sumatra to Jambi, South Sumatra and Lampung. “Three buses and one truck were dragged away by the landslide,” Padang Disaster Mitigation Agency’s (BPBD) emergency affairs section head, Sutan Hendra, said on Friday (14/12). The dead body in Sitinjau Laut was identified as Dian Ekawati, 40.

In North Sumatra, a landslide victim search on Jl. Sigura-Gura was hindered by four subsequent landslides. Of the victims’ bodies, eight have been recovered and properly buried while two remained under the rubble.

Six of the bodies belonged to one family, comprising a husband and wife, three children and their grandfather. The couple’s last remaining child, Friska Tambunan, 30, was at a relative’s home in Pekanbaru at the time of the incident. She cried hysterically upon hearing news of the incident.

Jl. Sigura-Gura connects Toba Samosir and Asahan regencies. It had been impassable by vehicles since the early hours of Friday. Four heavy equipment vehicles were deployed to clean up landslide materials, which buried a 100-meter stretch of the road, and the road was reopened on Friday at 6 p.m.

“We have yet to recover the bodies until the end of the [search] operation,” Toba Samosir BPBD head Herbet Pasaribu said. The soil on the landslide site, measuring 300 meters by 100 meters, remained highly unstable.

Some 100 personnel from the Toba Lake search and rescue (SAR) post, the Toba Samosir BPBD, the 0210/North Tapanuli Military District Command and PT Indonesia Asahan Aluminium (Inalum) employees, were involved in the search.

Toba Samosir deputy regent Hulman Sitorus said the Toba Samosir regency administration was considering to relocate locals living on steep, landslide-prone cliffs. For now, eight families comprising 39 individuals have moved to their relatives’ homes.

Logistics distribution

Apart from taking lives and injuring others, the landslide in Sitinjau Laut, Padang, also disrupted distribution of agricultural products, staple needs and fuel.

Three heavy equipment vehicles were deployed to clean up landslide materials on early Friday. A joint team comprising personnel of the BPBD, the National Police, the military, the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas), the Tagana emergency response unit, locals emergency preparedness groups and PT Semen Padang’s fast response team was involved in cleaning up landslide materials.

On Friday morning, locals were allowed to pass through the landslide site on foot, including a group of people from South Solok heading to Minangkabau International Airport to go to Mecca for an umrah (minor pilgrimage). “We have been stuck here since Thursday. This morning, we will try to reach the airport on foot as my mother’s flight is scheduled to take off at 10 a.m.,” said Ajisman, who was accompanying his mother to the airport.

Hendrayanto, 32, who was transporting agricultural products, including chili pepper, cabbage and onions, from Sungai Penuh in Kerinci to Padang, said that he could suffer up to Rp 5 million (US$342.97) in losses due to the landslide. Almost half of his transported goods have rot. “I’ve been stuck here since Thursday at 10 a.m. I cannot move as there was a palm oil spill and then the landslide. Some of my goods are now damaged. Hopefully, I can still sell the rest of it that’s still good,” he said.

Gusrianton, 33, who was transporting Pertalite fuel from a PT Pertamina depot in Bungus Teluk Kabung, Padang, to Lubuk Sikaping, Pasaman, said that the landslide had cost him an additional Rp 200,000 in operational cost. Consequently, the Pertalite delivery was delayed.

“I have been stuck here since Thursday at 9 p.m. This is not my usual route but I had no other choice as the Padang-Bukittinggi bridge in Padang Pariaman was cut off. The most recent information I got was that Pertalite stock in Lubuk Sikaping was depleting,” Gusrianton said.

The construction of an emergency wooden bridge in Kayu Tanam, Padang Pariaman regency, is still ongoing. Road management agency III Padang’s field coordinator Andi Rusli said that the agency was still installing the bridge’s floor panels.

Previously, Public Works and Housing Minister Basuki Hadimuljono said that the new bridge would be opened for use this Saturday. Before the bridge is completed, traffic between Padang and Bukittinggi was diverted on several alternative routes.

West Sumatra Traffic Police’s training and operational division head Adj. Sr. Comr. Ari Yus Triono said that the Malalak alternative route remained passable. “Hopefully, similar accidents will not happen there,” he said.

Weather dynamics

In Jakarta, the BMKG has predicted heavy and extremely heavy rains across the archipelago in the next 10 days. Landslide and flood risks are increasing, especially in Java, Sulawesi and Sumatra.

“Some 62 percent of regions in Indonesia have entered the rainy season,” BMKG’s deputy head of climatology Herizal said. Several regions, including West Sumatra, central Riau, Cilacap and Semarang, have experienced extremely heavy rain. Tasikmalaya in West Java has the highest recorded rainfall in November.

This weather dynamics was influenced by the Owen tropical cyclone over Australia’s Gulf of Carpentaria, around 800 kilometers to the south of Merauke. This cyclone moves northeasterly away from Indonesia at a speed of 11 kilometers per hour and vortex power of 140 kilometers per hour.

In Central Kalimantan, several rivers have overflowed and flooded the surrounding areas due to heavy rains. Four villages in West Kotawaringin regency were inundated by up to 80 centimeters, while three villages in East Kotawaringin regency were inundated.

North Arut district in West Kotawaringin has been flooded for the past week. Floods have spread to the South Arut district (NSA/ZAK/AIK/IDO/E02)