JAKARTA – Indonesia’s disaster agency today revised down its death toll from cyclone-sparked flooding and landslides to 86 from 130, citing miscommunication with local agencies.
“From 11 districts affected by the tropical cyclone, our data showed 84 people died” in the province of East Nusa Tenggara alone, said agency spokesman Raditya Jati.
There were two additional deaths in another region, bringing the confirmed toll in the country to 86, while the number of those missing moved above 100.
Rescuers are searching for dozens of people still missing after floods and landslides swept away villages in Indonesia and East Timor, killing at least 120 people and leaving thousands more homeless.
Torrential rains from Tropical Cyclone Seroja turned small communities into wastelands of mud, uprooted trees, and sent around 10,000 people fleeing to shelters.
In East Timor, 34 people have been officially listed as dead since the disaster struck on Sunday.
Authorities in both nations are scrambling to shelter evacuees while trying to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
Today, East Timor recorded its first virus death – a 44-year-old woman – since the pandemic broke out last year.
The tiny half-island nation of 1.3 million sandwiched between Indonesia and Australia, officially known as Timor-Leste, quickly shut down its borders to avoid a widespread outbreak that threatened to overwhelm its creaky healthcare system.
However, the weather disaster has heightened fears of a spike in cases, as thousands cram into shelters across the nation’s inundated capital, Dili, and elsewhere. – AFP, April 6, 2021
