Aidi Yursal

Aid Yet to Reach North Sumatra Flash Flood Victims

Medan. Thousands of flash flood victims from seven villages in Indonesia's North Sumatra province are facing food shortages as supplies have yet to reach disaster areas, a local official admitted on Wednesday.

Ejer Nasution, secretary of the Mandailing Natal national and public security agency, told the Jakarta Globe that as of Tuesday evening, no relief goods had reached the disaster areas and the thousands of displaced in their shelters. He said the first boat carrying the disaster mitigation team from Singkuang only managed to depart for the location on Tuesday evening.

Nasution went on to say that the second boat had left on Wednesday morning and that the trip to the disaster areas in Muara Batang Gading subdistrict in Mandailing Natal took around six hours along the Batang Gadis river.

“The first boat has reached the disaster areas, but they have not come up with a complete report on the number of victims and the condition of flood victims,” she said.

Some local newspapers have put the number of dead at 38 people and scores missing, but Nasution could not confirm the figure.

She added that more rescue teams had left the district center in Panyabungan, taking an alternate route via Padangsidempuan that borders with Mandailing Natal, in the belief that it would be easier to pass compared to the Singkuang route that is blocked by the overflowing river.

Nasution said data on the number of casualties and refugees were still unreliable as they were based on reports from residents and the disaster management team was expected to start working on Wednesday evening.

“I kept calling the team that has arrived by cellular phone, but there had been no answer, probably because reception was disrupted at the time of the flash flood,” she said, adding the locations had been completely isolated, making it hard to know the actual condition of the survivors.

She said that she had no authority to ask the government to send a helicopter to Mandailing Natal, so supplies, including tents, blankets, lamps and medicines, could not be delivered to the disaster area immediately.

The flash flood swept through as many as four neighboring villages in Muara Batang Gadis subdistrict, including Sale Baru, Ranto Panjang, Lubuk Kapundung I and Lubuk Kapundung II, as well as three other villages in Muara Batang Gadis subdistrict.

Earlier reports said at least 30 were dead while dozens of others were missing.

Hundreds of houses were swept away in the flood early on Tuesday morning.

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