Mother and baby among dead pulled from mud of Indonesian landslides The Associated Press Published: December 28, 2007
LEDOKSARI, Indonesia: Rescuers pulled the lifeless bodies of a mother clutching her baby from an Indonesian village devastated by landslides, causing exhausted onlookers to break down in tears Friday, witnesses said. At least 87 people were killed or feared dead after torrential rain sent hillsides crashing in several districts on Java island Wednesday. Burst river banks forced tens of thousands more to flee their homes. Soldiers, police and villagers have worked around the clock to recover bodies. With flooding blocking heavy equipment from reaching the disaster zone, most were using their bare hands or shovels to dig. "We hope to finish soon," said Heru Aji Pratomo, the head of the local disaster coordinating agency, as six more bodies were pulled from beneath crumpled homes in the hardest hit village of Ledoksari. A 24-year-old mother clinging to her 7-month-old baby were among them, witnesses said. The scene sparked a fresh outburst of emotion. Rescuers and villagers wept as the muddy corpses were placed in black plastic bags and taken to a nearby mosque so they could be cleaned for burial. Local officials have given varying death tolls, but Rustam Pakaya, a Health Ministry official at the crisis center, said 87 people had been killed or were feared dead in the landslides - which afflict Indonesia this time every year with the approach of pounding seasonal rains. Millions of people live in mountainous regions and on fertile flood plains that are close to rivers. Some environmentalists blame rampant deforestation, which they say loosens soil on mountainsides. "Podi! Podi!" cried Wagiyem, a 45-year-old woman, as she searched for her missing sister at a cemetery, where two cousins already had been buried. Like many Indonesians she goes by only one name. "Please my God, tell me where she is." Another woman wailed and threw herself to the ground as her daughter's mud-caked body was recovered, footage on Metro TV showed. In east Java province, police were searching a swollen river after a bridge was swept away Wednesday as several motorbikes were passing over it. Two people were reported missing, said local police Capt. Sunarta, who also uses only one name. Other officials said they feared the toll could be higher. Rivers bloated by days of rain burst their banks in the towns of Solo and Sragen, forcing more than 28,000 people to leave their homes, said Pakaya. Witnesses said water levels were a meter (yard) high in places. Residents scrambled to save their most valuable possessions, from television sets to motorbikes. Others carried the elderly through the water or sat on rooftops, waiting for the floods to subside. Food and other aid was being distributed to stranded families by rubber boat, said Riyadi, chief of search and rescue operations in Central Java province. He also uses a single name.
