Indonesia flood death toll surpasses 900

The death toll from floods and landslides that hit Sumatra island in Indonesia this month has increased to more than 900 people.

Data released by the government showed that the death toll from the cyclone-induced floods and landslides across three Indonesian provinces on Sumatra, including Aceh, rose to 908 people on Saturday with 410 listed as missing.

The storm systems also killed about 200 people in southern Thailand and Malaysia.

Survivors in the Aceh Tamiang region, on the northeast coast of Sumatra, walked for an hour on Saturday, scrambling over scattered logs and passing overturned cars to reach an aid distribution centre set up by volunteers, they told Reuters.

Volunteers handed out clean clothes and brought in a tanker truck of fresh water so people could fill plastic bottles, Reuters witnesses said.

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Dimas Firmansyah, a 14-year-old at an Islamic boarding school, said access in and out of Aceh Tamiang was cut, and that students had stayed at the school for a week, taking turns to search for food and boiling and drinking floodwater.

“We stayed for about a week there,” Dimas said, urging the government to come to the area to see the calamity themselves.

Local government officials on Sumatra have called on the national government in Jakarta to declare a national emergency to free up additional funds for rescue and relief efforts.

Earlier this week, President Prabowo Subianto said the situation was improving, adding that current arrangements were sufficient.

The Star