Torrential rains accompanied by heavy floods in eastern Indonesia have killed more than 55 people and displaced thousands, according to the country’s disaster relief agency said Monday.
More than 40 other people are missing.
Police and soldiers used rope to help people in Namaila village cross fast flowing waters higher than knee-deep.
Namaila village is in the Melaka District in East Nusa Tenggara province, near the border with Timor Leste (formally East Timor.)
Some villagers used tractors to move through the floods.
Flash flooding killed at least 17 people elsewhere and at least 42 are missing, according to the National Disaster Mitigation Agency.
Relief efforts were hampered by power cuts, blocked roads covered in thick mud and debris as well as the remoteness of the area on an island surrounded by choppy seas and high waves, said the agency’s spokesperson.
Seasonal rains frequently cause flooding and landslides in Indonesia, an archipelago of 17,000 islands where millions of people live in mountainous areas or near fertile flood plains.
(Foreign news agency)
