Heavy rains from 6 p.m. on Wednesday until early on Thursday in Jayapura, Papua, triggered a landslide in which a cell phone shop attendant was killed after being crushed by masonry. Three of his colleagues sustained injuries and were currently receiving treatment at the Dock II Hospital in Jayapura.
The building hit by the landslide was the SMS cell phone shop on Jl. Percetakan in Jayapura.
“The landslide took place at around 00:25 a.m. when the victim, Ardi Apriandi, 22, and two of his colleagues, Nehemia Boseke and Nurhaeni, were chatting in the back room of the shop. They suddenly heard a rumbling sound coming from above followed by a large boulder crashing into the shop. Ardi was immediately killed, while Nehemia and Nurhaeni were injured by falling masonry,” said Jayapura Police spokesman Adj. Comr. Kiki Kurnia.
The local military engineering corps removed Ardi’s body at around 5 a.m., while the injured victims were rushed to hospital.
Large sections of Jayapura, especially low-lying areas, were engulfed by floods, including Youtefa market, which was completely engulfed by water with only its roof still in sight.
A number of houses were inundated by floods up to chest level. On Thursday morning, residents of Jayapura were seen busily cleaning their homes from the previous night’s flooding.
Traders at Youtefa market suffered losses estimated at billions of rupiah as their stalls and merchandise were swept away by the floods.
“All the electronic goods in my shop are soaked. I’ve just got new stock amounting to Rp 750 million [US$84,000],” said an electronics goods trader, Andre.
Several areas in Cirebon, West Java, have also been hit by floods over the past week, destroying infrastructure in the province.
Since Feb. 2 the floods, triggered by torrential rains over the past week, have caused rivers running through the city to overflow and engulf a number of areas.
Although the floods have started to subside, they have left pools of water a number of locations at depths of between 10 cm and 30 cm. During the peak of floods, several residential areas were inundated at between 1m and 1.5 meters deep. At least 5,000 houses were engulfed by the floods.
Based on information gathered on Thursday, the Cirebon municipality was still making an inventory of the damages caused by floods, estimated at billions of rupiah due to the damage to infrastructure and facilities.
“We are still collecting data on various damages to infrastructure and loss incurred by residents,” said Cirebon Public Works, Housing, Energy and Mineral Resources Office head Wahyo.