Residents affected by landslides in Kotabaru evacuate to fishing boats

Most of the residents' houses are on mountain slopes on Matasirih Island.(Antaranews Kalsel/special/imm)

They are afraid the land in their homes is still unstable, so they chose to evacuate to the fishing boats and local port,

Kotabaru, S Kalimantan (ANTARA) - Residents affected by landslides in Teluk Sungai Village and Labuhan Barat Village, Pulau Sembilan, Kotabaru District, South Kalimantan, were forced to flee in the port area and the fishing boats.

"They are afraid the land in their homes is still unstable, so they chose to evacuate to the fishing boats and local port," said Head of the Kotabaru Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) H Ahmadi Jaya through the Emergency and Logistics Section Head Saparudin Syukur in Kotabaru on Thursday.

Most of the residents' houses are on mountain slopes on Matasirih Island. When high rainfall it is unstable, it can cause landslides.

The community feels safer, if they are in the port area or staying on a kursen boat which is used to catch fish.

The landslide incident that occurred on Wednesday (24/4) resulted in a mother, Hikmah (25), and her baby, Dea (six months), buried.

Besides swallowing two dead victims, a landslide in Matasirih destroyed the homes of 15 families in Teluk Sungai Village and in Labuhan Barat Village.

Joint team consisting of members of the rayon military (Koramil), sector police (Polsek), other officers and the community working hand in hand to search for the dead and injured victims.