Flash Floods, Tracking Dogs And Heavy Equipment Will Be Unloaded In Batu City

East Java Governor Khofifah Indar Parawansa (center) inspects areas affected by flash floods in the Batu City area, East Java, Friday (11/5/2021). (ANTARA/HO-Humas East Java Provincial Government)

BATU CITY - East Java Governor Khofifah Indar Parawansa seeks to accelerate the cleaning of garbage left over from flash floods in the Batu City area.

Khofifah said the provincial government would bring in heavy equipment to help speed up the cleaning up of garbage left over from the flash floods in the city.

"We need acceleration to clean up garbage. It can't be done manually, so we need a bigger excavator, then we also need a dump truck," Khofifah said as quoted by Antara, Friday, November 5.

According to him, the East Java Provincial Human Settlements Service will bring in the heavy equipment needed to speed up the cleaning of flood-affected areas in Batu City.

The governor said that the garbage left over from the flood must be cleaned up immediately so that the risk of flooding can be reduced if heavy rains return to Batu City.

"If the heavy equipment is lowered, it can immediately complete (the cleaning process), so what we are worried about if there are aftershocks and so on can relatively do more effective mitigation," he said.

In addition, the Governor instructed the deployment of sniffer dogs to search for disaster victims.

"It does require the help of a sniffer dog so that it can identify approximately at what point the victim is being sought," he said. On Thursday, November 4 at around 14.00 WIB, flash floods hit parts of the Bulukerto Village, Sumber Brantas Village, and Punten Village in the Sub-District Bumiaji and Sidomulyo Village and Tulungrejo Village in Batu District.

According to data from the Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD) of Batu City, the disaster has killed five people. In addition, there were several people who were reported missing when the flood hit Batu City.