On Sunday, officials announced that torrential rains had triggered flash floods and a landslide on Indonesia's Sumatra island, killing at least 19 people and leaving seven others missing.
Mud, rocks, and uprooted trees descended a mountain and reached a river that burst its banks, smashing through villages in the West Sumatran province.
Landslides, Flash Floods Hit Indonesia's Sumatra Island
According to Doni Yusrizal, the head of the local disaster management organization, seven bodies had been recovered from the wreckage in the village of Koto XI Tarusa by Saturday.
On Sunday, rescuers found six more bodies in Pesisir Selatan, while three others were found in two other nearby villages.
Indonesia's National Disaster Management Agency also said three more bodies were discovered in Padang Pariaman. The flash floods hurt at least two villagers.
Following the floods, over 80,000 people have fled to temporary government shelters. In nine districts and cities around West Sumatra, 20,000 residences flooded up to their roofs, which buried fourteen houses.
"Relief efforts for the dead and missing were hampered by power outages, blocked roads covered in thick mud and debris," Yusrizal said.
The extreme weather started on Thursday, and the agency has warned of potential damage from landslides and floods.
Furthermore, millions of people live in mountainous areas or near floodplains in Indonesia, where heavy rain frequently causes landslides and flash floods.
(Photo: REZAN SOLEH/AFP via Getty Images)
Dozens Killed in Philippines' Landslides, Flash Floods
On Saturday, officials said that 50 people have died in flash floods and landslides caused by heavy rains, including in a severely affected region in the southern Philippines, where up to 60 villagers are thought to be missing after being buried in a massive mudslide filled with boulders, trees, and other debris.
Naguib Sinarimbo, the interior minister for a five-province Muslim autonomous region governed by former separatist guerrillas, reported that at least 42 people were washed away by raging floodwaters and drowned or were struck by debris-filled mudslides in three towns in Maguindanao province from Thursday night to early Friday.
According to the government's disaster response agency, tropical storm Nalgae struck the eastern province of Camarines Sur early on Saturday, killing eight people across the country.
However, the locals said that the worst storm damage to date was a mudslide that buried dozens of houses and up to 60 people in the tribal village of Kusiong in the town of Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao, Sinarimbo.
Army Lt.-Col. Dennis Almorato, who visited the area affected by the mudslide on Saturday, said that about sixty rural homes were submerged by the muddy flood. He called the mudslide "overwhelming," although he did not estimate the number of villagers who might have been buried beneath it.
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