January-March, 84 Disasters Occurred In NTT And Dominated By Floods

Illustration of floods (ANTARA)

The Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD) noted that during the first quarter or in January -March 2023 there were 84 natural disasters that hit the Province of East Nusa Tenggara (NTT).

"The cases of natural disasters that occurred during January-March reached 84 natural disasters. The number of natural disasters is high," said Head of BPBD NTT Ambrosius Kodo as quoted by ANTARA, Friday, June 9.

He explained that in January there were 21 natural disasters, then in February there were 51 disasters, and in March 2023 there were 17 natural disasters.

The impact of the damage caused 488 houses to be heavily damaged, 322 moderately damaged, 490 housing units moderately damaged, and 1,449 houses were flooded.

The natural disasters that occurred were 27 floods, 12 strong winds, 24 extreme weather events, five tidal waves, 15 landslides, and one earthquake.

He said the natural disasters that hit the island-based province had killed 11 people, two people were missing, and five people were injured, and 757 people were displaced, and 19,166 people were affected by natural disasters.

"Floods dominated natural disasters in the first quarter because at that time extreme weather occurred in NTT which caused flooding in a number of areas such as Timor, Flores, Sumba and Rote Ndao," said Ambrosius Kodo.

The natural disaster that occurred in Kupang Regency was the highest during the first quarter period, namely 17 flood events.

He further said that NTT is starting to enter the dry season so it is necessary to watch out for natural disasters of forest and land fires (karhutla) and lack of clean water for the consumption needs of residents as well as for agricultural business needs.