Incessant heavy rains over the past three days have triggered floods and landslides in Rewarangga, Lokoboko and Paupiere villages, in Ende District, Flores Island, NTT Province. The worst-affected village is Rewarangga where 24 houses located under a hill slope were buried by the landslide, ANTARA quoted Rewarangga Village Head Ismai M Pedo as saying on Monday (Aug 23). The landslide also pushed a truck into a ravine but there were no casualties in the disaster, he said. In Paupire village, a house was hit by a falling tree. The landslide also almost cut off several roads connecting Ende town with other areas. Meanwhile, in Ampelgading subdistrict, Malang district, East Java Province, a landslide triggered by heavy rain early last Sunday (Aug 22) buried six houses. The six houses were located in three villages, namely Lebakharjo, Sonowangi and Wirotaman. The heavy rain also carried away the pillars of a 22-meter long bridge and caused part of an elementary school building to collapse. No injuries or fatalities were reported in the landslide. The heavy rain also destroyed nearly 20 hectares of paddy field. In Gorontalo Province, northern Sulawesi, a flood triggered by three days of incessant rain inundated several parts of Gorontalo city on Saturday (Aug 21). The flood-hit areas included Moodu, Heledulaa Selatan, Ipilo, Bugis, Tamalate and Limba U1 with the water level ranging from 30 cm to 60 cm. The areas were flooded at least seven times over the past couple of months.
