By NNN-Antara
Jakarta : Rescue teams searched Friday for 11 missing people after a wooden fishing boat capsized in rough seas off Indonesia’s Central Java province earlier this week, an official said.
Brebes district search and rescue team leader Ade Raharjo said rescuers, including navy divers and police, were still searching for survivors after the accident on Wednesday.
“We hope that the weather will be more calm today (Friday) to enable us to keep searching for the missing,” he said, adding that bad weather hindered rescue efforts on Thursday.
The fishing boat was found upside down early Wednesday off the northern coast of Java, Raharjo said.
Wild weather this week had stopped hundreds of fishermen from sailing off Indonesia’s main island of Java, he said.
Earlier in the week, high waves struck coastlines across Indonesia’s eastern islands, claiming two lives and forcing hundreds to flee their homes.
In MAKASSAR, South Sulawesi, tidal waves and strong wind hit Selayar District, South Sulawesi Province, damaging at least 214 houses on Friday.
The disaster forced hundreds of residents to flee their houses and evacuate to safer areas, Selayar’s social service head Nuryani Yusuf said.
Worst-hit subdistricts included Bonto Sikuyu where 106 houses were damaged, Benteng (52 houses), Pasi Masunggu Timur (32 houses), Pasi Masunggu (17 houses) and Bonto Manai (eight houses).
The tidal waves triggered flooding which inundated houses located along the coastal line, she said, adding that the tidal waves were the worst in the past 34 years.
“Huge tidal waves once occurred in 1974 and now it happens again. Luckily it did not claim any lives,” she said.
The tidal waves are expected to continue until Feb24 and might also affect villages in Takalar, Jeneponto, Bantaeng and Bulukumba District.
In TOLITOLI, Central Sulawesi, a 3-meter high wave hit a coastal village in the Indonesian Province of Central Sulawesi, on Tuesday afternoon, destroying at least four houses.
The wave forced residents of Tanjung Dede village, most of them fishermen, to evacuate to safer ground assisted by the Army and Tolitoli district government.
It also affected Siduarjo and Baru villages as well as the Plaza Susumbolan compounds where the water level reached up to 30 cm.
In KARAWANG, West Java, floods swept through tens of villages in Karawang district, West Java, on Thursday, inundating thousands of houses, offices, school buildings and public utilities.
The floods inundated the villages in Batujaya and Rengasdengklok subdistricts before dawn on Thursday following heavy rains, an ANTARA journalist observed.
In Batujaya subdistrict, flood water inundated 21 school buildings, 2,528 houses, a subdistrict head office and a number of village head offices. The water level in worst-hit areas reached up to 1 meter.
In Rengasdengklok subdistrict, floods inundated around 2,000 houses, a village head office, and a number of school buildings.
In KUPANG, East Nusa Tenggara, floods hit two villages in Ende Dstrict, Flores Island, destroying one school building and a bridge early this week.
Tens of hectares of rice fields were inundated in Wologai and Nuaone villages, while four houses were seriously damaged by landslides, Yustinus Sani, head of the local regional legislative council (DPRD) of Ende, said by phone on Thursday.
The flood waters which were created by incessant rains over the past few days caused the collapse of a bridge on the road between Wologai and Nuaone villages so that land transportation between the two place had been totally cut off.
He called on the provincial and central administrations to send relief aid for the flood victims.