By DPA
Jakarta : More than 130 people have died or have been missing in landslides and flash floods in the wake of torrential rain that swept through densely populated Central and East Java provinces of Indonesia, police and media said Monday.
More than 1,600 homes were destroyed or heavily damaged, an official at the National Disaster Management Agency said.
Local television stations showed footage of inundated areas in the Central and East Java, mainly along the Bengawan Solo river, with people being evacuated from their roofs or upper storeys of their homes. Helicopters dropped supplies to people in the inundated areas.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono arrived Monday in Central Java village of Tawangmangu during a tour of flooded areas. He urged rescue workers to keep searching for three persons missing since Dec 26 when mud buried more than 60 people.
Rescuers have been hampered by a lack of heavy earth-moving equipment as more rain and large fallen trees hindered their progress, officials said.
Emergency assistance was said to be slow in getting to many residents living in temporary shelters and suffering from various illnesses, such as diarrhoea, skin diseases and respiration-related problems.
“Floods are receding in parts of Java, but tens of thousands of homes in East Java district of Bojonegoro and Ngawi are still under floodwater,” an emergency official said.
Indonesian Forestry Minister Malam Sambat Kaban has said that Java is the island most vulnerable to disasters, as the sandy clay soil has limited capacity to hold rainwater.
Landslides are frequent in Indonesia, where years of deforestation have left hillsides vulnerable to collapse.