Deadly Sumatra Floods and Landslides Kill 49; Rescuers Intensify Search as Dozens Missing

Rescue teams continued scouring rivers, village rubble and remote slopes after sudden flash floods and landslides on Sumatra killed 49 people and left 67 others unaccounted for. Monsoon downpours over the past week caused rivers in North Sumatra province to overflow on Tuesday, sweeping through mountainside settlements and inundating more than 2,000 homes and public buildings. Nearly 5,000 people were evacuated to government-run shelters.

Provincial police spokesperson Ferry Walintukan said rescue teams recovered 17 bodies in South Tapanuli district and eight in Sibolga city. In neighboring Central Tapanuli, landslides struck multiple homes and killed at least four members of a single family. Two bodies were retrieved in Pakpak Bharat district, and teams were searching for five people reported missing in Humbang Hasundutan, a district hit by landslides that killed two villagers. At least one person died when mud and debris struck a main road on Nias island.

Search-and-rescue operations

Television footage and on-the-ground reports showed rescuers using jackhammers, circular saws, farm tools and sometimes their bare hands to dig through thick mud, rocks and uprooted trees. Teams in rubber boats searched rivers and helped older people and children who had been forced onto the roofs of flooded houses and buildings. Officials warned that with many people still missing and some remote areas unreachable, the death toll could rise.

Cloud seeding planned to limit further rainfall

Forecasters warned that further heavy rainfall was possible across North Sumatra, with the risk of extreme rain expected to persist through next week. Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency recommended weather modification as a possible measure to reduce damaging rainfall during the emergency. Disaster agency head Suharyanto said authorities planned to deploy cloud-seeding operations to try to divert precipitation away from active search-and-rescue zones. Cloud seeding involves dispersing particles into clouds to induce precipitation in target areas, with the goal of changing where rain falls.

Wider impact across Sumatra

Other provinces on Sumatra were also hit. In Aceh, torrential rains and landslides killed at least nine people in three villages in Central Aceh; provincial officials said nearly 47,000 people were displaced by floods and about 1,500 sheltered in temporary centers. In West Sumatra, six people drowned in floods in the Lumin Park area of Padang and more than 3,300 houses were submerged in Padang Pariaman district. Rescuers were searching for 14 residents believed buried by mud and rocks in the hilly Jorong Toboh village, where landslides also destroyed bridges and blocked main roads.

Seasonal heavy rains from roughly October through March frequently trigger floods and landslides across Indonesia, an archipelago of some 17,000 islands where millions live in mountainous terrain or on fertile floodplains.

Reporting by Karmini in Jakarta.