Floods in South Kalimantan have killed more than a dozen people and displaced tens of thousands. Rescue workers are still looking for some missing and feared buried under mud 10 days after landslides through a village in West Java. And divers continue to search for victims and crucial data in the wreckage of Sriwijaya Air Flight 182, which crashed in the Java Sea on Jan. 9, with 62 people on board.
Meanwhile, two volcanoes on the most populous island, Java, are spewing ash into the air, with hundreds of people evacuated from the slopes of Mount Merapi in recent weeks.
Seventy-three people died in Friday’s earthquake in the town of Mamuju, north of the epicenter, while an additional 11 people were killed in Majene, a town about 200 kilometers south of Mamuju. Thousands of residents have fled their homes to seek safety, but many are still trapped under collapsed buildings, according to local search and rescue teams.
At least 253 people were seriously injured and an additional 679 sustained minor injuries, said Raditya Jati of the Indonesian National Disaster Management Board. The earthquake also caused a power outage and triggered three landslides along the main road between Majene and Mamuju.
The earthquake has created additional headaches for a country already fighting a serious outbreak of the coronavirus. Indonesia has reported at least 907,929 cases of Covid-19 and nearly 26,000 related deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
The head of Indonesia’s disaster management agency, Doni Monardo, said on Sunday that rapid antigen testing kits were being delivered to evacuation centers to monitor and detect for possible Covid-19 transmission among the 19,435 people displaced by the earthquake.
“There will be an antigen swab later to make sure refugees are not exposed to Covid-19,” said Doni. He added that displaced persons centers have been asked to separate vulnerable groups from young people to prevent the virus from spreading.
The Indonesian Bureau of Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics warned that aftershocks may still occur and urged people living in hilly areas to be aware of landslides. People living on the coast were also warned to stay away from the beach in case of tsunamis.
Rescue teams, meanwhile, continued to free people trapped under collapsed buildings in multiple locations around Mamuju – including two hotels and a hospital. “People are reporting that their relatives are trapped under collapsed houses and are asking for our help,” Ariyanto Ardi, head of the local disaster management department, told CNN Saturday.
“We still don’t have details on how many people are buried under those flattened buildings,” he added.
Facing the so-called Pacific “Ring of Fire”, Indonesia – a nation of high tectonic activity – is regularly hit by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. In 2018, a magnitude 6.2 earthquake and subsequent tsunami hit the city of Palu, in Sulawesi, killing thousands of people.
Mount Merapi, Indonesia’s most active volcano, started erupting again on January 4. Since then, 500 people living on or near the fertile slopes have been evacuated, according to the Magelang District’s local Disaster Management.
On Monday, Merapi continued to spew lava as hot clouds and ash rose 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) into the sky, according to the Indonesian Center for Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation. The agency said six lava flows could be seen descending 600 meters along the southwest slope.
Also on Java Island, Indonesia’s highest volcano, Mount Semeru, started spewing lava, ash and smoke on Saturday.
Floods and landslides
Floods caused by torrential rain in South Kalimantan province on Borneo Island killed at least 15 people and displaced more than 100,000 this week.
According to Raditya of the disaster relief agency, more than 20,000 homes in 10 counties of the province have been flooded as high as 1.5 meters (5 feet).
Indonesian President Joko Widodo visited flood-hit areas on Monday when rescue teams distributed aid, including food, tarpaulins and blankets, to people in need.
Separately, at least six people were killed in floods and landslides in Manado City, North Sulawesi, on Saturday.
The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency warned that more rain could follow, saying the region was in the middle of the rainy season, which will last until February.
Meanwhile, rescue workers continue to search through mud and debris for victims 10 days after a landslide caused by heavy rains and unstable soil conditions through the village of Cihanjuang in West Java province. On Monday, four bodies were removed from the mud, bringing the death toll to 33. According to the West Java Search and Rescue Agency, rescue workers are looking for four missing persons.
Indonesia, an archipelago of 17,000 islands, often suffers from flooding and landslides, especially during the rainy season from November to March. In December 2019 and January 2020, severe flooding in Jakarta, caused by the worst rainfall ever, left parts of the capital underwater and affected more than 400,000 people.
Experts have voiced concern that such extreme weather could become a new norm as a result of the climate crisis.
Sriwijaya Air crashes
In another disaster that turned the Southeast Asian nation upside down, divers continue their search for the wreckage of Sriwijaya Air Flight 182 as authorities continue their investigation into the cause of the crash.
On Friday, search teams found the voice recorder in the plane’s cockpit, but the memory unit was not with the case, Soerjanto Tjahjono, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Committee, told CNN.
Despite the missing crash memory unit, Soerjanto said they thought they could still retrieve data.
Also on Friday, the committee successfully downloaded information from the recovered flight data recorder, which was found last week by divers and a remotely operated underwater vehicle.
“There are 330 parameters and they are all in good condition. We are currently studying it,” said Soerjanto.
The findings from the flight data recorder data so far have confirmed previous reports that the two engines were still operating when the plane hit the water.
Efforts to find and identify those who died on board are also continuing. On Sunday, divers removed 10 bags of human remains and pieces and debris from the plane itself.
Masrur Jamaluddin reported from Jakarta, Helen Regan wrote from Hong Kong. CNN’s Julia Hollingsworth and Yosef Riadi contributed to the reporting.