BPBD Palu Notes 16 Houses Damaged To The Winds

One of the houses in Balaroa Village, West Palu District was heavily damaged due to being hit by strong winds at around 05.45 WITA on Wednesday (15/2/2023). ANTARA

PALU - The Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD) of Palu City said that approximately 16 houses in the capital city of Central Sulawesi Province were damaged by strong winds that occurred on Wednesday, February 15. "This incident at around 05.46 WITA in Balaroa Village, West Palu District caused damage to the roof of residents' houses," said Head of BPBD Palu Presly Tampubolon in Palu, Antara, Wednesday afternoon. He explained, of the 16 houses affected by the strong winds, two of them were severely damaged, while the rest were moderately and lightly damaged. In addition to houses, elementary school buildings, kindergarten schools, village health posts (Poskesdes) and a number of culinary places, residents were also affected. "We have invited relevant agencies to collaborate in handling the impact of this disaster, and each agency has moved to collect data for further intervention efforts," he said. The infrastructure improvement will be handled by the Housing and Settlement Areas Office, together with the Public Works Office as a follow-up step. From this incident, around 55 heads of families were affected. They still stay in their respective homes. In addition, the Social Service has also intervened in distributing logistical assistance to residents. "It needs to be addressed and anticipated in this situation. BPBD together with the Public Works Service have socialized to residents regarding the structure of buildings that are resistant to disasters, including the roof. Therefore, residents when building houses must pay attention to the level of building resilience," he said. He also appealed to residents to remain careful when doing activities outside the home, because hydrometeorological disasters still have the potential to occur, so it is necessary to take anticipatory steps by keeping the environment clean, cleaning clogged waterways so as not to cause inundation when it rains. In addition, residents who live on riverbanks still pay attention to the water level, because floods can occur at any time, as predicted by the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) that Palu City in the next few days will still experience light, moderate to heavy rain. "We have conveyed an appeal to each regional leader (lurah and sub-district head) by letter, deploying residents to clean the environment, because trivial things can sometimes trigger disaster risk," said Presly.