Aid Reaches Cut-Off Sumatra as Deaths Mount; Environmental Audit Ordered for Firms (Image: Reuters)
The disaster on Indonesia’s Sumatra island has worsened, with the official death toll from cyclone-driven floods and landslides exceeding 900. Survivors in remote areas like Aceh Tamiang made dangerous, hour-long journeys over debris to reach aid, while investigators said widespread deforestation worsened the crisis.
The combined toll from the devastating storms across three provinces on Sumatra has reached 916 confirmed deaths, with 274 people still listed as missing, according to government data released on Saturday. The storm system also claimed approximately 200 lives in southern Thailand and Malaysia.
In the hard-hit Aceh Tamiang region, survivors described being cut off for over a week. Reuters witnesses reported residents scrambling over slippery, scattered logs and past overturned cars to reach volunteer-run aid distribution points, where they received clean clothes and fresh water from tanker trucks.
Accounts from the ground paint a picture of extreme hardship. Dimas Firmansyah, a 14-year-old student at an Islamic boarding school, said he and others were stranded at the school for a week, forced to take turns searching for food and boiling floodwater to drink.
"We stayed for about a week there," Dimas said, urgently calling for government officials to witness the calamity firsthand. Local officials have appealed to the national government in Jakarta to declare a state of national emergency to unlock additional funds and resources, contradicting President Prabowo Subianto's earlier assessment that the situation was improving.
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Yes. Environmental groups and the government say commercial deforestation played a key role in worsening the floods. The Environment Ministry has opened an investigation and temporarily stopped several companies suspected of illegal forest clearing in affected areas.
The Ministry said aerial surveys show land clearing in sensitive areas like Batang Toru, which likely reduced the land’s water absorption and worsened flooding and landslides.
A: They were triggered by a powerful cyclone system. However, environmental experts and the government assert that extensive deforestation for mining, logging, and agriculture severely reduced natural drainage and soil stability, turning heavy rains into a catastrophic disaster.
A: Aid is being delivered by volunteers and officials, but reaching remote areas remains difficult. Officials are urging a national emergency to speed up and fund the relief effort, even as essentials reach some communities.
A: The Ministry of Environment has temporarily stopped their operations and will conduct mandatory environmental audits, with possible legal action afterward depending on results.
A: In remote locations, survivors face dire shortages, drinking boiled floodwater and making hazardous, long journeys to reach the small number of working aid distribution points.
A: Although the latest reports don’t spell it out, scientists agree that climate change makes extreme weather events like this cyclone more frequent and intense, especially when combined with local environmental damage.
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