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At least 16 people were confirmed killed and more than 2,300 houses damaged in torrential rains and strong winds that lashed much of Indonesia over the past few days.

Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, a spokesman for the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB), said on Sunday that most of those killed were struck by trees felled by severe winds.

“Fourteen people were crushed by falling trees,” the spokesman said. “In total, 60 people were injured.”

He added that more than 2,300 houses in 35 districts and cities across Java and Bali had been damaged in the last four days due to heavy winds and rain whipped up by Tropical Cyclone Iggy, churning just south of Bali and the Nusa Tenggara island chain.

“But now Tropical Cyclone Iggy has weakened and is moving away from Indonesia,” he said.

Elsewhere in the country, at least two other people were confirmed killed as a result of the foul weather.

In Bali, the heavy rains caused a massive landslide on Saturday in the Taman Ayun Temple area, a popular tourist spot, killing an 18-month-old baby.

Ketut Parwa, the head of the Bali Search and Rescue Agency, said the child had been asleep with her mother at a food stall in the temple’s parking lot when the disaster struck at 11 p.m. They had gone to the food stall to take shelter from the rain.

Parwa said the 12-meter-high precipice on which the food stall was located suddenly gave way, burying the child in tons of mud. The mother managed to escape. Rescuers recovered the child’s body on Sunday evening.

In Lebak district, Banten, authorities recovered the body of a boy who had been swept away and drowned in a river. They are continuing their search for a friend who was with him.

Irna, an official with the local search team, said the victims, both 14-year-old students at an Islamic boarding school, went missing on Friday while swimming in the rain-swollen Ciberang River. One of the bodies was recovered later that day and given to the family for burial.

“We’ve combed a four-kilometer stretch of the river over the past two days, but we still haven’t been able to find the second boy,” Irna said.

“We’re having great difficulty in our search because of the strong current in the river.”

Also in Banten, strong winds damaged hundreds of homes, including 334 of the 790 houses at the Kota Bumi 2 residential estate in Tangerang.

Retno, the marketing head for real estate developer Karsatama Bumi Permai, said the company would compensate residents whose homes were damaged when the strong gusts hit last Thursday.

She said most of the damage consisted of tiles being blown off roofs, although there were reports that the walls of some houses had also collapsed.

In Kediri, East Java, strong wings uprooted almost 11,000 trees at plantations run by state forester Kesatuan Pemangku Hutan.

Erik Alberto, a KPH official, said some of the trees uprooted were 16 years old, indicating the strength of the wind gusts.

JG, AFP, Antara