Rescuers are currently combing through rivers and the wreckage of devastated villages in search of bodies and, when possible, survivors of flash floods that struck Indonesia's Sumatra Island over the weekend.
Monsoon rains and a landslide of mud and cold lava from Mount Marapi led to rivers overflowing their banks. The deluge surged through mountainside villages in four districts in West Sumatra province just before midnight on Saturday. The floods swept away people and 79 homes, submerging hundreds of houses and buildings, which forced more than 3,300 residents to seek refuge in temporary government shelters, according to National Disaster Management Agency spokesman Abdul Muhari.
By Tuesday, Mr. Muhari reported that 50 bodies had been recovered from mud and rivers, mostly in the worst-hit districts of Agam and Tanah Datar. Rescuers are now searching for 27 people who are reportedly missing. Television footage showed rescue teams using jackhammers, circular saws, and farm tools, and at times their bare hands, to dig desperately in the Agam district. The roads there had been transformed into murky brown rivers, with villages buried under thick mud, rocks, and uprooted trees.
Scores of rescue workers are searching through a river near the Anai Valley Waterfall area in Tanah Datar district, where tons of mud, rocks, and trees were left from the flash floods. Their main focus is on finding four people from a group of seven who were swept away with their cars.
Abdul Malik, head of the Search and Rescue Office in Padang, the provincial capital, reported that three other bodies were recovered on Monday. With many still missing and some remote areas inaccessible, the death toll is expected to rise, Mr. Malik said.
Indonesia, an archipelago nation of more than 17,000 islands, experiences frequent landslides and flash floods due to heavy rains. Millions of people live in mountainous regions or near floodplains.
This disaster comes just two months after heavy rains triggered flash floods and a landslide in West Sumatra, killing at least 26 people and leaving 11 others missing.