The Phenomenon Of Movable Land Damaged 14 Houses In Balikpapan

One of the houses experienced a crack due to the ground moving in Balikpapan, Wednesday (3/1) in the morning. (ANTARA/Januar)

BALIKPAPAN - A total of 14 houses in RT 37 Jalan Purnawirawan eight and nine, Graha Indah Village, North Balikpapan District, were damaged by ground movement.

"The movement of the land is thought to have been triggered by high-intensity rain that hit the city of Balikpapan in the last few days," said Head of the Balikpapan Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD) Usman Ali as reported by ANTARA, Wednesday, January 3.

His party received the incident report at around 9:38 WITA. After receiving information, the team from BPBD and other relevant agencies immediately moved to the location to anticipate the worst.

"At the location, it appears that a police line has been installed. We urge residents who live in areas that have been given police lines to evacuate, they are afraid that there will be further ground movement," said Usman.

According to him, the worst damage and most damage were experienced by houses located on Jalan Purnawirawan nine.

Head of RT 37 local kelurahan, Andi Firmansyah, said that his party evacuated residents to a safe location after feeling the worst condition of ground movement at around 00.00 WITA because they were worried that unwanted things would happen.

"The movement of this land has occurred since December 29, 2023, but today is the peak. It even reached the house in the next alley," said Andi.

Maria, one of the residents whose house was affected, said her house had started to crack since December 29, 2023. Not only did it experience cracks, a number of his belongings had begun to fall. Finally, he chose to evacuate at the place where his relatives were.

The same thing was conveyed by Hopmi, whose house was right on the subsidence track. He admitted that he had started to feel signs of shifting the land since December 22 but it was still on a small scale.

"Conditions at my house began to get worse when entering on December 26. On that date, road access began to run a little after experiencing a break," he said.

The movement of the land also made access to residents collapsed by approximately 50 centimeters.

Lurah Graha Indah, Satrio said, after this incident, the Balikpapan City Social Service built a temporary shelter not far from the scene. The refugee camp was built on an empty land which is only 100 meters from the scene.

"Luckily there were no casualties in this incident, only material losses will be carried out in an inventory," said Satrio.