Jakarta: Following a landslide in central Indonesia, at least 19 people have been confirmed dead and two more are missing, according to local authorities on Sunday.
According to Sulaiman Malia, head of the local disaster agency, the deceased and two survivors were evacuated from two landslide-affected villages in Tana Toraja regency, South Sulawesi province, on Saturday evening.
19 people have died, Malia stated on Sunday. Four of them were in South Makale, while the remaining fifteen were in Makale communities.
“At present, we are actively seeking additional casualties,” he declared, saying that two people remain unaccounted for, perhaps concealed beneath the rubble from the avalanche. Malia stated that Tana Toraja and its environs had been “constantly hit by heavy rainfall, especially over the past week, with hardly any stop.”
According to him, the excessive rain caused landslides that buried people’ homes as the soil in residential neighborhoods perched on steep slopes was undermined.
During the rainy season, Indonesia is prone to landslides; deforestation has made the problem worse in some areas, and protracted periods of intense rain have caused flooding in several parts of the archipelago nation.
