[Kabar-indonesia] At Least 36 Dead in Sulawesi Flooding, Landslide [+Merapi Update]

[JoyoNews at aol.com]

also: Scientist: Rain May Cause Landslides At Indonesia Volcano

Indonesia flooding, landslide kill at least 36 people

JAKARTA, Indonesia, June 20 (AP) - At least 36 people, many of them
children, have been killed and dozens were missing after flooding and
landslides in central Indonesia's South Sulawesi province, police and
residents said Tuesday.

Incessant rains over the past two days inundated rice paddies and
damaged hundreds of houses in five provincial districts in the central
Indonesian region.

The worst hit was Sinjai District on the province's eastern coast,
where 31 people were found dead, more than a dozen were missing and 10
others were in critical condition, a police official said. The five
other deaths occurred elsewhere in the province.

Djoko Subroto, a police spokesman in the provincial capital, Makassar,
about 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) northeast of Indonesia's capital,
Jakarta, confirmed the floods and landslide in Sinjai, but could not
provide details.

He said at least five other villagers were reported dead in four other
districts -- a man and his wife in Bulu Kumba, and one each in Bone,
Jeneponto and Bantaeng, where six others were unaccounted for.

"Sixteen people, many of them children, were found dead in Sinjai
Timur sub-district," said a local police officer who identified
himself only as Achmad. Rescue operations were underway for an
unspecified number of villagers reported missing in floods there, he
said.

In the Sinjai Tengah sub-district, 15 bodies were unearthed from a
landslide and another 10 were believed still buried.

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Scientist: Rain May Cause Landslides At Indonesia Volcano

MOUNT MERAPI, Indonesia, Jun 20 (Dow Jones) -- Indonesia's most active
volcano spewed burning ash and gas clouds Tuesday as scientists
expressed fears that rain could send deadly flows of volcanic debris
to villages below.

If forecasts of rain on Wednesday and Thursday hold, millions of
metric tons of built-up ash and rock fragments could be sent down
Merapi's steep slopes in mudslides, a vulcanologist warned.

Meanwhile, avalanches of new debris tumbled 3.5 kilometers down the
flanks of the volatile mountain earlier Tuesday, said the government
volcanologist, who used the single name Subandrio.

He said rain threatened to cause landslides in a government-designated
no-go zone where many villagers are still tending crops and livestock,
despite orders from authorities to evacuate. While several hundred
farmers remained behind, thousands of other villagers were living in
government shelters.

The powerful, fast-moving flows of volcanic debris are known by their
Indonesian name Lahar.

"That is what we are worried about," said Subandrio, whose team of
researchers was still calculating the possible speed and trajectory of
the flows if poor weather were to hit.

Merapi has been at a state of high alert for seven weeks, though the
status was dropped briefly earlier this month. Two people died when
they sought shelter at an emergency bunker when hot gas traveled 7
kilometers down the mountain on Wednesday.

The government has ordered the evacuation of thousands of residents
living within 7 kilometers of the peak, but says it cannot force them
to leave or prevent villagers from returning to check their houses and
crops.

The main dangers at Merapi are fast-moving bursts of blistering gases
and rock fragments called pyroclastic flow. Experts say a massive
vertical eruption threatening people many kilometers is very unlikely.

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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