Therefore, the public is warned to anticipate or prepare for an even higher frequency of water and weather-related disasters in the country, than in the past year, a BNPB spokesman, Sutopo Purwo, said on Monday.
About disaters that happened in 2010, he said a total of approximately 644 had happened in the past year in which 1,711 peole lost their lives.
The number of people injured and reported missing was about 1,398,923 while 14,639 houses were ruined, 2,839 moderately and 25.030 lightly damaged.
Of the 644 natural disasters that occurred, 517 or 81.5 percent were hydrometerological in nature. Geological disasters such as earthquakes, tsunami and volcanic eruptions happened 13 (2 percent), one (0.2 percent), and three (0.5 percent) times respectively.
The biggest natural disasters that occurred in 2010 were the landslide in Ciwidey (West Java), floods in the upper and lower reaches of the Citarum river (West Java), the flash floods in Wasior (Papua), Mentawai tsunami and the Mount Merapi eruptions.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
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