Deaths And Misery Rising In flood-stricken Indonesia

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

(Worthy News) – Rescue workers in Indonesia search for scores of people still missing after deadly floods and landslides devastated Indonesia’s most Christian islands and other areas.

The Flores and Adonara islands, part of the East Flores Regency, were hardest hit by the disaster that killed more than 150 in Indonesia and nearby East Timor since Easter.

Thousands have been displaced, including Christians whose Easter celebrations were overshadowed by the flooding.

Elisabet Lena Huki, 61, took refuge at a local government office with her husband, elderly parents, children, and grandchildren. She recalled that she was coming back from an Easter mass on Adonara when tragedy struck.

“We had rushed home from church because my elderly parents were there,” she told French news agency AFP. “Suddenly I heard a thundering noise… and I screamed to my sleeping husband that there was a flood.”

Her neighbors watched in fear as Huki’s family searched around their waterlogged home for her nephew Yeremias. “He’s still missing,” she sobbed, remembering the 33-year-old she thinks of as a son. “I want him to be found, even if it’s just his body… so we can lay him to rest and visit his grave. That’s my only hope now.”

NO EARTHLY POSSESSIONS

With just the clothes on their backs, Huki and her extended family also have to think about their own survival in the weeks ahead. “I need diapers for my elderly parents, but the stores are closed,” she said. “ We’re all exhausted and weary. I’m not thinking about wealth and possessions right now — I just want my family to have shelter.”

Thousands have been displaced by the flooding in Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim nation with a sizable Christian minority. Among those displaced was a woman who cried over her relative who was found dead after heavy rain brought flash floods in East Flores.

Elsewhere in the island area, a reporter met a homeless man. Injured and with his daughter dead, Sugeng stared blankly as he came to grips with the devastation.

The 60-year-old was asleep with his family last Sunday night as torrential rain battered the community at the eastern end of the vast archipelago nation, AFP reported.

In seconds, their lives changed forever. “Suddenly we heard people scream ‘flood!'” said Sugeng, who, like many Indonesians, goes by one name.

He and his wife fled their home, but their 20-year-old daughter Indri did not make it out alive, and her body was later found on a beach.

She was trying to hold on to a cupboard, but the current was so strong that she lost her grip,” Sugeng added. “We buried my daughter yesterday… I’m devastated.”

Authorities have airlifted injured residents in helicopters to a city and provided shelter for those left homeless. But with many still missing, it will take time before the healing process of survivors can begin.

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