TANAH DATAR, Indonesia — Indonesian authorities raised clouds on Wednesday in a bid to prevent further rain and flash flooding after floods that hit the island of Sumatra this weekend killed at least 58 people and left another 35 missing.
Monsoon rains caused a landslide of mud and cold lava from Mount Marapi, eventually causing rivers to burst their banks. The deluge swept through mountain villages in four districts in West Sumatra province just before midnight on Saturday.
The floods swept away people and 79 homes and inundated hundreds of homes and buildings, forcing more than 1,500 families to flee to temporary government shelters, said Abdul Muhari, spokesman for the National Disaster Management Agency.
He said 58 bodies were recovered from mud and rivers on Wednesday, mainly in the worst-hit districts of Agam and Tanah Datar, as rescuers search for 35 people reportedly missing. About 33 villagers were injured.
The head of Indonesia's Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency, Dwikorita Karnawati, has said more rain showers are forecast for West Sumatra in the coming days, and the danger of extreme rainfall will continue until next week.
Karnawati said an air force plane was sent on Wednesday to shoot salt flares into the clouds in an attempt to make the clouds release water and break up before they reach the devastated areas in Agam, Tanah Datar, Padang Panjang and Padang Pariaman. as well as the city of Padang, the provincial capital.
The method is known as cloud seeding and creates precipitation, which changes the weather.
The Indonesian Air Force worked with the country's technology agency to conduct three rounds of cloud seeding on Wednesday, Karnawati said, adding that more would take place if necessary. About 15 tons of salt has been prepared for Wednesday's action.
Indonesia's technology agency, known as BPPT, said in a statement that all rain clouds heading towards the four districts of West Sumatra will be bombarded with sodium chloride or salt.
“We will deploy weather modification technology from tomorrow so that there is no rain during this emergency response period,” Suharyanto, head of the National Disaster Management Agency, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, told reporters on Tuesday. Speaking during a visit to Agam district, he said emergency relief will end on May 25.
A search operation was underway on Wednesday as rescuers scoured rivers and the rubble of destroyed villages, where roads turned into murky brown rivers and villages remained covered in thick mud, rocks and uprooted trees.
Heavy rains regularly cause landslides and flash floods in Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands where millions of people live in mountainous areas or near floodplains.
Marapi has been active since an eruption late last year that killed 23 climbers. It is one of more than 120 active volcanoes in Indonesia. The country is prone to seismic unrest due to its location on the Pacific 'Ring of Fire', an arc of volcanoes and fault lines that encircle the Pacific Basin.
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Karmini reported from Jakarta, Indonesia
