Longsor Breaks Access To Cross Sulawesi In North Gorontalo

Long queue of vehicles at the landslide point of Kasia Village and Mebongo Village, North Sumalata Gorontalo District, Gorontalo Province, on Friday night (1/3) night. (ANTARA/Susanti Sako)

A landslide disaster cut off the Sulawesi cross road access in the western part of North Gorontalo, Gorontalo on Friday (1/3) night.

"Until now, the landslide material has not been successfully cleared, causing hundreds of vehicles to queue at landslide points in Kasia Village, Mebongo Village and Puncak Mandiri Village, Sumalata District. The worst landslide occurred in Mata Putih Hamlet, Mebongo Village," said the Head of Kasia Village, Andri Usu, quoted by ANTARA, Friday, March 1.

According to him, the current situation continues to be reported to the highest leadership to accelerate handling, because the temporary cleaning of landslide materials is done manually by residents in these three villages even though the rain continues to flush the area.

Motorcycles can pass even though they have to be lifted by residents. Including an ambulance carrying a corpse to Biau District.

Andri said that the body had to be transferred to a pick-up car so that it could pass.

"We hope that the handling can be accelerated considering that this road access has been cut off since early Friday. This condition was difficult for us to report because the telecommunications network was completely cut off and only returned to activity on Friday afternoon at around 13:00 WITA," he said.

Acting Regent of North Gorontalo Sila Botutihe said he had coordinated with the Road Hall to bring in heavy equipment assistance.

There was one unit of heavy equipment belonging to a contractor at the landslide location but was constrained by the absence of a transport car (tronton) so that it could not be used.

"We continue to strive for heavy equipment considering that there are five landslide points in this sub-district, all in hilly areas, so we need transportation equipment for heavy equipment," he said.

The Road Hall informed that Sila said, two units of temporary heavy equipment were moving from the Gorontalo City area and the Paguyaman of Gorontalo Regency.

"We pray that the heavy equipment will soon arrive at the location to clean up the landslide, especially moving large rocks that cover the road," he added.