LHOKSEUMAWE, Indonesia: The death toll in Indonesia’s devastating floods closed in on the 1,000 mark Thursday (Dec 11) as hundreds of thousands more continued to face shortages, with frustration growing over relief efforts.
Disaster mitigation agency spokesman Abdul Muhari said 990 people had died by late Thursday in the deluge, which laid waste to the northwestern island of Sumatra – the biggest disaster of its kind in recent years. More than 220 people are still missing.
Tropical storms and monsoon rains have pummelled Southeast and South Asia this month, triggering landslides and flash floods from the rainforests of Sumatra to highland plantations in Sri Lanka – and more rains are predicted.
In Sumatra’s Aceh province, scene of a cataclysmic tsunami in 2004, residents are slowly piecing back their lives, but frustrations over the pace of relief efforts are growing.
“People don’t know who to rely on,” said Syahrul, a 39-year-old resident in the northern city of Bireuen, scene of widespread devastation.
Residents have “lost hope … even trying to muster hope for themselves. At this point, they can’t rely on the government at all, given how badly this has been handled,” he told AFP.
In nearby Lhokseumawe, residents were still fighting to keep the mud at bay.
“Nearly 15 days after the flood, every day, all we’ve been able to do is clean our house on the inside only,” said Sariyulis, 36.
“The outside can’t be cleaned anymore because of the mud,” he told AFP.
Source: CNA
