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Sumatra villages count cost of deadly river tsunami swelled by illegal logging

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SOUTH PESISIR, Indonesia — Bendri lived with his wife and child just 80 meters, or 260 feet, back from the Surantih Mudiak Dalam River, which flows from Sumatra’s Barisan Mountains down to the Indian Ocean coast of West Sumatra province. “There used to be a surau at the back here,” Bendri told Mongabay Indonesia at the ruins of his home, using the Malay word for an Islamic prayer hut. “It’s vanished — there’s no trace of it left.” Extreme rainfall over Sumatra on the evening of March 7 triggered fatal flash flooding that killed at least 30 people in two districts of West Sumatra. First responders arrived in Batu Balah, Bendri’s village, to find what looked like a war zone. Boulders and trees were carried downriver by the torrent, pulverizing homes and snatching lives in the village. Houses in South Pesisir, West Sumatra, were hit by flash floods and landslides. Image by Jaka Hendra Baittri/Mongabay Indonesia. Officials from Indonesia’s disaster mitigation agency, the BNPB, said the landslides and flooding had damaged 29,000 homes across West Sumatra’s South Pesisir district, which encompasses Batu Balah. Moments before the flood destroyed Bendri’s home, the waves of mud, rock and debris smashed into the village of Langgai, located 5 kilometers (3 miles) upriver. Outside the tent set up for evacuees, Langgai resident Ria cried and fainted. People picked her up and carried her back into the tent, her home since the disaster struck. The torrent killed her husband and other family members. Ria’s child,…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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