By Xinhua,
Jakarta : More than 15,000 people have escaped their homes as consecutive days of heavy rains caused floods in southern parts of Aceh province, according to Bukhari head of the provincial disaster management of social affairs service on Thursday.
The rains caused the overflowing of some riverbanks, submerging 3,532 houses since Dec. 5.
“At least 15,000 residents have taken shelter in their relatives houses or emergency tents,” the official told Xinhua by phone from the province.
However, the official said that there was no report of casualties.
Head of Indonesian Health Ministry’s crisis center Rustam Pakaya said that the rain had also caused some landslides in the area, but no casualties.
Aids have been delivered to the hit area and scores of medical men headed to the southern Aceh, he said.
Indonesia has been frequently hit by floods and landslide due to lack of forest covered areas resulting from forest destruction.
The country is fighting illegal logging and other type of deforestation by implementing strict law and planting huge number of trees.
Aceh was hit by tsunami in December 2004, which killed more than 170,000 people.