Flash floods and landslides from torrential rains have killed at least 41 people and displaced thousands in eastern Indonesia, while several people were still missing, the country's disaster agency, the BNPB, said Sunday.
Mud from surrounding hills hit almost 50 houses in Lamenele village shortly after midnight Saturday, BNPB spokesperson Raditya Jati said. The village is located on Flores Island in East Nusa Tenggara province.
“Dozens of houses were buried in mud in Lamanele village,” Raditya said in a statement. “Residents’ houses [were] washed away by the flood.”
Raditya said extreme weather was expected to continue this week.
In the city of Bima in the province of West Nusa Tenggara, the rising waters after nine hours of downpour overflowed the dams in four subdistricts, submerging almost 10,000 houses and killing at least two people, Raditya said.
In neighboring East Timor, a landslide killed eight people on the outskirts of Dili, the capital, state news agency Tatoli reported.
Seasonal flash floods and landslides kill dozens annually in Indonesia. Forty people died in two landslides in West Java province January.
