Spanish
Indonesian rescue teams continued the search for survivors on the island of Sumatra (west) this Tuesday, when the official death toll reached 964 dead and at least 5,000 injured, while 262 people are still listed as missing.
The disaster management agency, BNPB, has counted nearly 160,000 homes damaged due to landslides, fallen trees, and overflowing water that caused devastation in 52 districts of the provinces of Aceh, North Sumatra, and West Sumatra.
The bad weather, driven by the presence of a typhoon in the Strait of Malacca at the end of November, affected about 3.5 million people on this island, where about 1,000 schools, 500 bridges and 400 temples were destroyed.
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Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto announced on Sunday that each of the affected families will receive compensation equivalent to about 3,600 US dollars, while the government prepares plans to relocate homes and schools to safer areas. Prabowo, who departed from Aceh -the only Indonesian province that applies Islamic law (sharia)- on Sunday for Pakistan for a two-day official visit, has asked to accelerate the distribution of humanitarian aid and food, which continues to face obstacles in numerous areas due to the collapse of roads. Authorities estimate that around 65,000 hectares of crops are at risk of being declared as losses, which is why they are developing recovery plans, the details of which are still unknown. The Government insists on its ability to resolve the emergency, therefore it opposes the proposal of several NGOs to request international aid to intensify the attention to damages and victims in Sumatra. In addition to Indonesia, the country hardest hit by the recent coincidence of cyclones in South and Southeast Asia, severe flooding has also been recorded in recent weeks in Thailand, with at least 276 deaths, and in Sri Lanka, where deaths reached 638 today, with 191 missing. The tropical storm and typhoon season has been especially harsh this year for these countries, and experts attribute the intensity to ocean warming, while its devastating impact is related to deforestation or lack of urban planning, among other factors.
