Floods inundated the Arso Swakarsa-Arso II area, Arso City, and the villages of Asyaman, Yanamaa, Walukubun, Workwana, and Pitewi.
The East Arso Police Sector office was also inundated, Deputy Chief of the Keerom Resort Police Commissioner Martha Tolau stated when contacted from Jayapura.
The police deployed personnel to help residents whose settlements were affected by flooding.
"Several police officers have been deployed to help the flood-stricken residents," she confirmed.
The flooding was triggered by incessant heavy rains that had fallen since Tuesday (Feb 2) and caused the Tami River to overflow its bank.
Meanwhile, massive flooding had hit South Kalimantan Province in January this year, affecting 10 districts and cities and claiming at least five lives.
A total of 197 natural disasters had hit Indonesia during the period between January 1 and January 23, according to data of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB).
Most of those disasters were hydrometeorological disasters, the agency wrote on its official Twitter account on Saturday.
The disasters comprising 134 incidents of floods, 31 incidents of landslides, and 24 incidents of whirlwinds, claimed 184 lives, injured 2,700 people, rendered nine people missing, and affected or displaced 1.9 million people.
In January 2020, during the same period, the BNPB had recorded 297 disasters affecting Indonesia, particularly massive flooding in Jakarta and the surrounding areas, and claimed 91 lives.
The Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) warned of likely hydrometeorological disasters, such as floods, landslides, and whirlwind, occurring simultaneously in several regions during the peak of the ongoing rainy season.
"Since October 2020, the BMKG has issued early warnings of potential extreme weather-related conditions due to various phenomena that are feared to coincide with the rainy season," BMKG Head Dwikorita Karnawati stated.
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Translator: Evarukdijati, Fardah
Editor: Sri Haryati
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