Dozens Of Tegaltengah Sukabumi Houses Damaged By Tornadoes

SUKABUMI - Dozens of houses located in Tegaltegah Village, Sukabumi Regency, West Java were damaged by being swept away by a tornado.

"There were no fatalities in the tornado that occurred in RT 003/001, Katangjaya Village, Gegerbitung District," said Manager of Pusdalops of the Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD) of Sukabumi Regency, Nanang Sudrajat, quoted by Antara, Thursday, December 9.

Information gathered from local BPBD officers, this hurricane hit when some areas in Gegerbitung District were raining heavily. Residents who were mostly indoors when it rained then heard a rumbling sound from outside the house.

Around the residents panicked to see the trees swaying and as if they were about to fall in the strong wind, the panic grew after several residents' houses on the roof fell due to being hit by a tornado.

There are even some residents who choose to leave their homes worried that something unwanted will happen. After a few minutes the hurricane and heavy rain finally subsided and some residents chose to leave their homes and were surprised that the roofs of houses such as tiles, asbestos, zinc and others were scattered on the ground.

From the results of data collection conducted by the Gegerbitung District Disaster Management Officer (P2BK), there were 16 houses whose houses were damaged as a result of the disaster.

Of the 16 houses that were damaged, seven units were categorized as lightly damaged and nine other units were moderately damaged. The majority of residents' houses that were damaged were on the roof.

In addition, the monitoring results revealed that several survivors needed sleeping equipment because their mattresses were wet with rainwater due to the damaged roof so that rainwater entered the house and bedroom.

"The losses are still being calculated, but there are no residents whose houses were affected because they are still habitable, but until now the community has been assisted by BPBD officers, TNI officers, Polri and volunteers working together to repair the roofs of damaged houses," Nanang added.

Apart from houses, the hurricane also uprooted a number of large trees, but the tree branches that were broken due to being swept away by strong winds had no impact on the residents' settlements.