The death toll from devastating flash floods and landslides across Indonesia and East Timor has risen to at least 113, with warnings it will likely climb further.
Thousands more people have been displaced in both countries after tropical cyclone Seroja brought torrential rain and water from overflowing dams submerged thousands of homes.
The cyclone hit the Savu Sea, south-west of Timor island, early on Monday, Indonesia’s weather agency said.
The affected area stretches from Flores island in eastern Indonesia to East Timor.
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In Indonesia alone, the BBC is reporting that 86 people have died with dozens still missing.
“The mud and the extreme weather have become a serious challenge and the debris piling up has hampered the search and rescue team,” Indonesian Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Raditya Djati said.
“We suspect many people are buried but it’s not clear how many are missing,” his colleague Alfons Hada Bethan, head of the East Flores disaster agency, said.
“The evacuees are spread out. There are hundreds in each subdistrict but many others are staying at home. They need medicine, food, blankets.”
At least 27 people have also died in East Timor, officials from the island nation have said. They include 13 people from the capital Dili, some of them children.
Large areas of Dili remained under water on Tuesday, with floodwaters metres deep in places. Many residents have been forced out of their homes into crowded evacuation centres, sparking fears of a likely coronavirus outbreak in the impoverished nation.
East Timor’s Deputy Prime Minister, Jose Reis, said the flood was the country’s worst in 40 years.
“There are roads that have collapsed, trees have fallen, and made it difficult to access some areas,” he said.
The Catholic charity Australia’s Veterans Care Association has launched a go.fund.me appeal to raise money to get food, basic supplies and temporary shelter to those affected in East Timor.
“The impending risk of disease, drowning, health support, water and food security are of the utmost concern,” VCA’s project director Michael Stone told Catholicleader.com.au.
“Emergency and medical resources are extremely limited and cut off everywhere.”
More than 70 of the cyclone deaths have been in Indonesia’s West and East Nusa Tenggara provinces, where at least 70 more people remain missing.
On Lembata island, authorities feared bodies had been washed away.
“We are using rubber boats to find bodies at sea. In several villages, flash floods hit while people were sleeping,” Thomas Ola Langoday, deputy head of Lembata district government, said.
The floods have affected about 30,000 people across Indonesia, with some taking shelter in evacuation centres. Rescue operations have been hampered by bridge collapses and fallen trees blocking roads, BNPB spokesman Raditya Jati said.
A continuing storm had also halted evacuations in some places, local authorities said.
Hundreds of houses and other facilities such as a solar power plant were damaged, BNPB said. Ships and motor boats sank as the cyclone set off waves as high as six metres.
Powerful currents continued to flow through villages in the Malaka district on Timor island on Monday, even though the rain had stopped.
Some residents there hauled themselves to their roofs to escape flood water rising to 3-4 metres.
“We had to dismantle the zinc roof. We went out through the back door and pulled ourselves out with a rope,” Agustina Luruk, 36, said as she and her three daughters waited to be evacuated by the side of a muddy road.
President Joko Widodo offered his condolences and ordered speedy disaster relief efforts.
-with AAP
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