4 Villages In Padang Lawas, North Sumatra Hit By Flash Floods, Power Outages, Damaged Wood Materials Residents' Houses

SUMUT - Four villages in Padang Lawas Regency, North Sumatra, namely Tamiang Village, Tanjung Barani, Tanjung Baru and Manggis Village, Batang Lubu Sutam District, were hit by flash floods.

The Acting Regent of Padang Lawas, Ahmad Zarnawi Pasaribu, said the flash flood was caused by the overflowing of the Sutam River, which is adjacent to the four villages. The flood occurred around 19.30 last night.

Dozens of houses were lightly and moderately damaged by flood materials such as logs. Zarnawi has not been able to provide exact data on the number of damaged houses.

"Currently the team is still collecting data. And right now we are focusing on handling the complaints of the community, our brothers and sisters who are flood victims. This includes the evacuation of goods and the fulfillment of other needs such as clean water, basic food and health services," he said at the flood location, Antara, Saturday, January 1st.

Zarnawi expressed his concern and advised the affected residents to be patient.

Palas Police Chief AKBP Indra Yanitra Irawan who was also at the location added, provisionally information, there were no casualties in the flash flood.

"From last night, when we were here with the Acting Regent, there is no information on casualties so far. And hopefully there are no fatalities in this disaster, that's our hope," he said.

Palas Secretary Arpan Nasution added that apart from residents' houses, the flash flood natural disaster also damaged the State Elementary School, Tamiang Village. This incident also caused a power outage, due to the collapse of a number of PLN poles around the location of the four villages.

The Palas Regency Government in collaboration with Forkopimda and the community has established a number of service posts. Including the health service post and the public kitchen service post.

It has also established a Command Post for the evacuation of the flood victims. Currently, the Palas Public Works Service, in collaboration with the TNI-Polri, Palas BPBD, Palas Scouts Kwarcab, as well as the community and a number of student organizations, are evacuating flash flood materials and victim's belongings in residential areas in the four villages.