Handout, Indonesia disaster mitigation agency
At least 41 people have died in the floods and cold lava flows that hit the island of Sumatra, Indonesia, while seventeen other people are missing, the spokesperson for the local disaster management agency told AFP on 13 May. natural disasters.
Torrential rain fell for several hours between 11 and 12 May in the districts of Agam and Tanah Datar, in the western part of the island, causing floods and cold lava flows from the Marapi volcano.
“Last night we had 37 victims, but today the toll has risen to 41,” said Ilham Wahab. “We also have three missing in the Agam district and fourteen in the Tanah Datar district.”
It is not yet clear how many people have had to leave their homes.
“At the moment we are focusing on the search for victims and missing people, then we will think about the displaced people,” explained Wahab.
Many streets in the two districts turned into rivers of mud, submerging homes and dragging cars into a nearby river, as cold lava poured down from the volcano.
Cold lava is a magma formed from materials present along the walls of a volcano: ash, sand and rocks.
The role of deforestation
In Agam district, which has more than half a million people, dozens of homes and public buildings were damaged, according to the local natural disaster management agency.
The National Agency for Disaster Management (BNPB) instead stated that in Tanah Datar 84 houses, sixteen bridges and two mosques were damaged, as well as twenty hectares of rice crops.
Landslides and floods are very frequent in Indonesia during the rainy season. Natural disasters are often exacerbated by deforestation.
