DENPASAR, Indonesia: Indonesian rescuers recovered the bodies of at least 11 people while 13 people were missing Wednesday after flash floods struck two provinces of the island nation, authorities said.
Torrential rains beginning Monday caused flooding and landslides in East Nusa Tenggara province and on the tourist island of Bali.
Three members of a family were found dead after their house was swept away and five people were missing Wednesday in the Nagekeo district of East Nusa Tenggara, officials said.
In Bali, rescuers retrieved eight bodies from several areas and eight residents were missing Wednesday, according to Muhammad Iqbal Simatupang, the police chief in Bali’s provincial capital of Denpasar.
Rain has caused rivers to burst their banks, tearing through nine cities and districts in Bali. Mud, rocks and trees tumbled onto mountainside hamlets and rising rivers submerged at least 112 neighborhoods and resulted in several landslides, Bali’s Disaster Mitigation Agency said in a statement.
Four people were in a building that collapsed and was swept away in the Kumbasari market area of South Denpasar, said Nyoman Sidakarya, the head of Bali’s Search and Rescue Agency.
Videos released by the National Search and Rescue Agency showed cars floating in muddy waters while soldiers and rescuers in rubber boats helped children and older people who were forced onto the roofs of flooded homes and buildings.
Severe flooding inundated thousands of homes and buildings in residential areas and tourist spots. Authorities have cut electricity and water, prompting hotels, restaurants, hospitals and other public facilities to use generators, Bali Gov. Wayan Koster said.
There have been landslides in 18 neighborhoods of Karangasem, Gianyar and Badung districts and swept through at least 15 shops and houses and damages several roads and bridges, he said.
“This disaster also caused material losses for traders and tourism businesses,” Koster said, adding that more than 800 people were in temporary shelters after floodwater reached up to 2.5 meters (8 feet) in places.
National Disaster Management Agency spokesperson Abdul Muhari said flash floods in Nagekeo swept away villagers and vehicles passing through devastated villages and triggered a landslide that blocked three roads, killing at least three villagers and four people were missing.
The severe weather and rugged terrain hampered rescue efforts, he said, noting that the flooding in Nagekeo also destroyed two bridges, two government offices, a plantation, rice fields and livestock, Muhari said.
Heavy seasonal rain from about September to March frequently causes flooding and landslides in Indonesia.
Flash floods in Indonesia leave at least 11 dead and 13 missing
https://arab.news/jvun3
Flash floods in Indonesia leave at least 11 dead and 13 missing
- Three members of a family were found dead after their house was swept away and five people were missing Wednesday in the Nagekeo district
- In Bali, rescuers retrieved eight bodies from several areas and eight residents were missing
Federal judge rules Kilmar Abrego Garcia can’t be re-detained by immigration authorities
- Abrego Garcia has an American wife and child and has lived in Maryland for years
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement cannot re-detain Kilmar Abrego Garcia because a 90-day detention period has expired and the government has no viable plan for deporting him, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday.
The Salvadoran national’s case has become a focal point in the immigration debate after he was mistakenly deported to his home country last year. Since his return, he has been fighting a second deportation to a series of African countries proposed by Department of Homeland Security officials.
The government “made one empty threat after another to remove him to countries in Africa with no real chance of success,” U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, in Maryland, wrote in her Tuesday order. “From this, the Court easily concludes that there is no ‘good reason to believe’ removal is likely in the reasonably foreseeable future.”
Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
Abrego Garcia has an American wife and child and has lived in Maryland for years, but he immigrated to the U.S. illegally as a teenager. In 2019, an immigration judge ruled that he could not be deported to El Salvador because he faced danger there from a gang that had threatened his family. By mistake, he was deported there anyway last year.
Facing public pressure and a court order, President Donald Trump’s administration brought him back in June, but only after securing an indictment charging him with human smuggling in Tennessee. He has pleaded not guilty. Meanwhile, Trump officials have said he cannot stay in the U.S. In court filings, officials have said they intended to deport him to Uganda, Eswatini, Ghana, and Liberia.
In her Tuesday order, Xinis noted the government has “purposely — and for no reason — ignored the one country that has consistently offered to accept Abrego Garcia as a refugee, and to which he agrees to go.” That country is Costa Rica.
Abrego Garcia's attorney, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, argued in court that immigration detention is not supposed to be a punishment. Immigrants can only be detained as a way to facilitate their deportation and cannot be held indefinitely with no viable deportation plan.
“Since Judge Xinis ordered Mr. Abrego Garcia released in mid-December, the government has tried one trick after another to try to get him re-detained,” Sandoval-Moshenberg wrote in an email on Tuesday. “In her decision today, she recognized that if the government were truly trying to remove Mr. Abrego Garcia from the United States, they would have sent him to Costa Rica long before today.”
The government should now engage in a good-faith effort to work out the details of removal to Costa Rica, Sandoval-Moshenberg wrote.
