BANDUNG - The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) stated that the Bandung and surrounding areas are currently at the peak of the rainy season, with the potential for heavy rain that is expected to continue for the next week.
Head of the Bandung BMKG Station Teguh Rahayu said that this condition was a serious concern, especially in supporting the evacuation process and disaster management in a number of landslide-prone areas.
"Currently, it is the peak of the rainy season and we estimate that heavy rain will still last for about a week," said Teguh in Bandung, Antara, Sunday, January 25.
He explained that the weather forecast was continuously monitored periodically and became one of the important references for officers in the field to continue to prioritize safety aspects in carrying out evacuation and disaster handling tasks.
BMKG, he said, has also taken mitigation steps through weather modification carried out at Husein Sastranegara Airport. These efforts are carried out to reduce the intensity of rainfall in the disaster-affected area.
"We have made weather modifications as part of efforts to reduce risks, especially in disaster-prone areas," he said.
However, BMKG is still concerned about the potential for subsequent landslides, given that the soil conditions in a number of areas have been saturated with water due to continuous rain in recent times.
"We still have concerns about the possibility of a follow-up landslide, because the soil conditions in some areas are already saturated with water due to continuous rain," said Teguh.
He added that the characteristics of the rainy season in West Java are varied between regions. However, in general, the BMKG predicts that the rainy season in the region will last until the end of March or early April.
On that occasion, Teguh also encouraged the strengthening of disaster mitigation efforts, both for officers and the community, so that the evacuation process and handling of victims can be carried out optimally when the weather conditions are relatively safer.
Meanwhile, the West Java Regional Police recorded that as many as 16 bags of the bodies of victims of the landslide disaster had been found until this afternoon at around 12.00 WIB.
In addition to the deceased, so far around 80 people are reported to be still in the search process. The landslide disaster also caused damage to more than 30 houses out of a total of 34 families affected.
The number of residents who were displaced due to the disaster is estimated to be 300 to 400 people and spread across a number of evacuation points in the affected areas.
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