Indonesian rescuers struggled Sunday with mounds of mud, debris and water\u2011soaked ground, searching for dozens still missing after a landslide triggered by torrential rains the day before on the country\u2019s main island of Java killed at least 11 people. <\/p>\n
The predawn landslide roared down the slopes of Mount Burangrang in West Java province on Saturday, burying some 34 houses in Pasir Langu village. On Sunday, 79 people remained missing, many feared buried under tons of mud, rocks and uprooted trees. <\/p>\n
About 230 residents living near the site have been evacuated to temporary government shelters. Rescue workers retrieved two more bodies on Sunday morning, bringing the death toll to 11, according to Ade Dian Permana from the search and rescue office.<\/p>\n
Videos released on Saturday by the country’s search and rescue agency, known as Basarnas, showed rescuers using farm tools and bare hands to pull a mud-caked body from the ground and placing it in an orange bag to take away for burial.<\/p>\n
Heavy equipment and excavators were mostly idle because the ground was too soft and unstable. <\/p>\n
“If the slope does not stabilize; crews are prepared to continue manually,” Permana said, estimating the height of the mounds of mud to be up to 5 meters (16 feet) <\/p>\n
\u201cSome homes are buried up to the roof level,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Visiting the area on Sunday, Indonesian Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka pledged that authorities would take measures to prevent similar disasters. He urged the local authorities in West Java and West Bandung to “address the issue of land conversion in disaster-prone areas,\u201d including ways to reduce risks.<\/p>\n
Basarnas chief Mohammad Syafii confirmed to reporters after visiting the devastated Pasir Langu village with Gibran, that the terrain condition and bad weather continue to complicate search operations on Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are at the mercy of the weather, and the slide is still mud … flowing and unstable,\u201d Syafii said, \u201dWith the area this wide, we\u2019ll use every asset we have … drones, K\u20119 teams and ground units, but safety comes first.”<\/p>\n
Seasonal rains and high tides from about October to April frequently cause flooding and landslides in Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands where millions of people live in mountainous areas or near fertile flood plains.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Indonesian rescuers struggled Sunday with mounds of mud, debris and water\u2011soaked ground, searching for dozens still missing after a landslide triggered by torrential rains the day before on the country\u2019s main island of Java killed at least 11 people. The predawn landslide roared down the slopes of Mount Burangrang in West Java province on Saturday, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5333,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[173],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n