Indonesia Christians Urge Prayers As Landslide Kills More Than 20

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

MEDAN (Worthy News) – Christians in Indonesia, a minority in the world’s largest Muslim nation, appealed for prayers Wednesday as at least 20 people died after flash floods hit mountainside villages on Sumatra Island.

Rescuers recovered 20 bodies, including several missing, under tons of mud and rocks following the tragedy in the island’s North Sumatra Province, officials said.

Since Saturday, heavy rain has pounded four districts across the province, producing deadly floods and landslides.

“At least nine people died in my village of Semangat Gunung, which is a one-hour drive from the city of Medan,” Fithriyani Tarigan, a Christian, told Worthy News. “Please pray for my country,” she added in the interview on Wednesday.

Tarigan also fears the flooding could impact municipal elections held across Indonesia on Wednesday, as roads in her region are up to two meters (6 feet) underwater in areas around Medan.

Authorities have warned of more heavy rainfall and extreme weather around Christmas and New Year.

“During the night, I could not sleep because of heavy rain and wind,” said Tarigan. “Please pray.”

LA NINA

Christians say besides weather phenomena, La Nina, bad infrastructure, and illegal logging added to the death toll.

Indonesia has suffered a string of recent extreme weather events, including in
May when at least 67 people died after a mixture of ash, sand, and pebbles carried down from the eruption of Mount Marapi in West Sumatra. That disaster washed into residential areas, causing flash floods, witnesses said.

Scientists debate whether human activities contributed to the latest drenching storm that hit Indonesia and the one that turned streets in the eastern Spanish region of Valencia into raging rivers earlier this month.

The World Weather Attribution group, composed of dozens of international scientists, says human-caused climate change doubled the likelihood of these weather events.

However, other experts have cautioned that climate change may have been a natural phenomenon over the centuries, with warmer and colder periods recorded over the last 2,000 years.

Judith A. Curry, an American climatologist and professor emerita of the Georgia Institute of Technology, has denied that “97 percent of scientists” believe in human-caused climate change.

“It’s a manufactured consensus,” she said in an interview. Scientists, she argued, have an incentive to exaggerate risk to pursue “fame and fortune.”

Yet, with a growing number of people living near rivers, lakes, and seas, experts agree that water management and protection are more important than ever in countries such as Indonesia.

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