TENS OF HOUSES INUNDATED IN EAST KUPANG

Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), Jan. 18 (ANTARA) - Floods triggered by incessant rains over the past four days have flooded tens of houses at Tarus, Oebelo, Tanah Merah and Oesao villages, East Kupang, Kupang District, NTT Province.

Floodwaters reaching a height of up to 1.5 meters paralyzed Oebelo village.

Ida Tilla (38), a resident of Oebelo village, said she was forced to evacuate herself in higher ground to cook food as her kitchen was flooded.

A small bridge at Oebelo village collapsed due to the flood, according to Augusto Gonsalves, an East Timorese living in a resettlement area at the village.

Hundreds of hectares of corn plantations were also submerged by the flood, he said.

Luis Missa (48), an inhabitant of Tarus village, said the village was inundated in every rainy season, especially between January and March.

A number of roads in Kupang were also flooded.

Indonesia is now in rainy season which has triggered floods in several areas, such as Jakarta, Jambi (Sumatra), Pandeglang (Banten Province), Bandung and Kerawang (West Java), South Sumatra Province, South Sulawesi, Kudus (Central Java) .

In Barru, South Sulawesi, two people were killed in floods that had swept through Barru district, South Sulawesi province, early this month.

The two were working on their rice field when flash floods hit the area, spokesman for the Barru district administration A Djalil Mappiare said on Wednesday.

In Jambi Province, floods triggered by incessant rains over the past three weeks, had submerged a total of 879.41 hectares of rice fields in Jambi Province.

The floods also caused 116 hectares of rice fields failed to harvest, Amrin Aziz, head of the Jambi provincial facility and infrastructure section, said here on Saturday.

The floods have also inundated thousands of houses and forced a number of residents to evacuate themselves to safer areas.