At least 73 people reportedly died in Indonesia after a cyclone triggered flash floods and mudslides on Monday.
The cyclone hit eastern Indonesian islands and neighboring East Timor, the Associated Press reported. Thousands of homes have been destroyed.
Video shows homes and bridges being swept away in Indonesia and East Timor as torrential rain brought landslides and floods to the region, leaving dozens dead. pic.twitter.com/VlJ7Hl0oOb
— SBS News (@SBSNews) April 5, 2021
“I can feel the grief of our brothers and sisters there caused by these disasters,” President Joko Widodo said in a televised address reported by the AP.
Adonara Island was reportedly hit the hardest. A mudslide destroyed dozens of homes in Lamenele village and killed at least 38, local disaster agency official Lenny Ola told the outlet. (RELATED: Death Toll Hits 430 After Indonesia Tsunami)
On Lembata Island, heavy rains dislodged solidified lava from a volcano. The lava destroyed houses in multiple villages, killing at least 14 and burying dozens more, district chief Eliaser Yentji Sunur told the AP.
The nearby volcano Illi Lewotolok last erupted in November 2020, forcing at least 2,700 people to evacuate their homes.
At least 27 were reportedly dead in neighboring East Timor, which gained independence from Indonesia in 2002. Roughly 8,000 Locals are currently housed in Red Cross shelters as a result of the destruction, government spokesman Fidelis Leite Magalhaes told the AP.
Indonesia, home to over 275 million people, consists of 17,508 islands, making it the largest archipelago in the world, according to the country’s embassy. Of those, 6,000 islands are populated.