Cyclone Seroja caught Indonesia’s disaster response off guard

Gregorius Hide, a farmer in the eastern Indonesian province of East Nusa
Tenggara, said the only warning he had of an approaching swirl of muddy
water that engulfed his district this week was a smell of wet earth shortly
before it hit.

Tropical cyclone Seroja, one of the most powerful
cyclones ever to hit Indonesia, struck on Sunday killing 163 people, mostly
on the islands of Lembata, Alor and Adonara, among the poorest and least
developed parts of Indonesia.

The sprawling archipelago, which is made up of more than 17,000
islands, is used to dealing with disasters ranging from earthquakes to
volcanic eruptions. But cyclones of this power have been rare, leaving many
areas poorly prepared.

“There were no government warnings in the village,” said Gregorius,
recounting how he managed to flee with his family before returning to help
treat injured neighbours and assist those who had lost everything.

Authorities will need to learn fast from the disaster since
Indonesia’s weather agency (BMKG) has warned once-rare tropical cyclones are
happening more often, with another potentially damaging cyclone due to hit
this week.

Activists and researchers point to a slow response to
Seroja, with little early warning infrastructure in place.

“We should’ve evacuated faster, like predicting when it would happen,
who to evacuate,” said Dominikus Karangora of the Indonesian Forum for the
Environment (WALHI), an NGO in East Nusa Tenggara. Some residents used
traditional means to warn people, with reports of mosques using loudspeakers
and church bells to warn of imminent danger.

Indonesia’s weather agency feeds warnings to local disaster mitigation
agencies and also provides warnings on its website.

Isyak Nuka, head of the disaster mitigation agency in East Nusa
Tenggara, said such measures are usually effective, but the scale of flash
floods and landslides was “unprecedented”. Isyak pledged to use this
disaster as a lesson to strengthen the system.

Video shows homes and bridges being swept away in Indonesia and East Timor as torrential rain brought landslides and floods to the region, leaving dozens dead. pic.twitter.com/VlJ7Hl0oOb

— SBS News (@SBSNews) April 5, 2021

Erma Yulihastin, a climatologist at the Indonesian National Institute
of Aeronautics and Space, said Seroja was an anomaly in its destructive
force since such cyclones do not usually gain traction in a country
straddling the equator.

“Tropical cyclones don’t happen that
much, but when they happen the damage is extraordinary,” she said.

Agie Wandala Putra, a researcher at BMKG, said Indonesia’s
preparedness is skewed towards guarding against disasters such as
earthquakes and tsunamis, and needs to put more attention on events such as
flooding, cyclones and droughts.

“What needs to be emphasised is not just early warning, but also our
response capacity,” he said. 
Reuters

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