REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, BANJARNEGARA -- The National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) has extended the emergency status at Banjarnegara, which was hit by a landslide recently, till January 4, 2015.
"The emergency status at Banjarnegara, which would have ended on December 21, has been extended for 14 days. This new emergency period will begin December 22 and will go on till January 4, 2015," Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, the head of Public Relations, Data and Information Center of the BNPB, said in a statement here on Saturday (20/12).
Emergency operations such as searching for victims, evacuating them, helping refugees, and making preparations to relocate survivors have been carried out diligently since December 13.
As many as 93 bodies have been found since the landslide hit Banjarnegara on December 12.
Some 22 families from Jemblung hamlet, Sampang village, and 36 families from Pencil hamlet, Karangtengah village, both in Banjarnegara district, will be relocated.
Earlier, the Banjarnegara administration had announced December 8 to 21 as a period of emergency response to the landslide that flattened some villages in the Central Java district.
Before the major landslide hit Jemblung village on December 12, an emergency status had already been declared in Banjarnegara as landslides had struck the sub-districts of Wanayasa, Pejawaran, and Sigaluh, Nugroho noted in a press statement on December 16.
Furthermore, Chairman of the BNPB Syamsul Maarif urged the Banjarnegara district military command to gather data about the victims from other villages, in addition to those from Jemblung.
The data was important as some vehicles, including those from other villages, were plying on Jemblung's roads when the landslide occurred.
Some 1,145 refugees have been accommodated in 10 evacuation shelters. The social affairs ministry and the Regional Disaster Mitigation Office (BPBD), along with volunteers, have set up a public kitchen to provide them food.
Moreover, the public works ministry deployed 15 heavy equipment to clear some 300-meter-long stretches of roads as they were covered with mud and debris, which ranged from heights between two and three meters.
The joint emergency response team at the site comprises personnel from BNPB's Quick Reaction Team, the BPBD, the Indonesian Military, the National Police, the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas), the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI), the Disaster Response Team (Tagana), the Regional Apparatus Working Unit (SKPD), and NGOs, in addition to businessmen and volunteers.
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