Indonesia landslides, floods kill 75 people

More than 75 people have died and dozens are still missing after flash floods and landslides hit Indonesia and neighbouring East Timor, officials said Monday, turning small communities into wastelands of mud and uprooted trees.

Sparked by torrential rain, the deluge and subsequent landslides sent thousands fleeing into shelters as dams overflowed and their homes were submerged.

Mud tumbled down onto dozens of house in Lamenele village from the surrounding hills shortly after midnight on Flores Island in East Nusa Tenggara province. Rescuers recovered 38 bodies and five injured, said Lenny Ola, who heads the local disaster agency.

Mud and continued extreme weather have made it difficult for rescue workers to reach trapped survivors.

' Medicine, food, blankets' - Scared residents flocked to temporary shelters across the remote region or took refuge in what was left of their homes.

"The evacuees are spread out. There are hundreds in each sub-district but many others are staying at home," said Alfons Hada Bethan, head of the East Flores disaster agency.

Pounding rains challenged efforts to find any survivors.

"We suspect many people are buried but it's not clear how many are missing," Bethan said.
In Lembata, an island halfway between Flores and Timor, parts of some villages were swept down a mountainside by torrents of mud, ending up down on the shore of the ocean.

Seasonal rains frequently cause flooding and landslides in Indonesia, an archipelago of 17,000 islands where millions of people live in mountainous areas or near fertile flood plains.