JAKARTA, Indonesia: The death toll from the floods and landslides that have devastated large areas of Indonesia’s island of Sumatra rose to more than 400 on Sunday, reported German Press Agency (dpa).
Nearly a week of relentless rainfall has triggered flash floods and landslides, affecting more than a million people.
A tally from the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) showed the death toll had climbed to 442, up from 303 reported on Saturday.
Another 402 people remain missing, and about 290,000 have been displaced in the provinces of Aceh, North Sumatra and West Sumatra.
Authorities said residents cut off by flooding in North Sumatra have resorted to looting food and water from a supermarket as they struggled to survive.
BNPB Chief, Suharyanto, said aid deliveries have been hampered by extensive flooding, bad weather and damaged roads that have isolated communities in some of the hardest-hit regions.
Those regions can only be reached by air or by sea because land routes have been cut off, he added.
“We have dropped food and aid by air to communities in the isolated regions, and we also dispatched soldiers to bring the aid by land for residents who are stranded on the road,” Suharyanto said in a televised press conference on Sunday.
Improved weather, with no rain over the past three days, has allowed floodwaters to begin receding in some areas, he added.
In West Sumatra, displaced residents have begun cleaning their homes, though many continue to sleep in government shelters at night. – BERNAMA-dpa
