The village`s chief of security, Suprapto, said on Friday the tragedy happened at 20.40 local time when he had just finished doing his tarawih ( Ramadhan evening) prayers at the nearest mosque.
"I was near the location when the houses started to collapse. I heard crackling sounds and saw people jump out of their houses. The houses near the river started to collapse soon after that," he said.
He said the ground near the river had actually already shown cracks since two weeks ago. "Local authorities had actually already asked people living near the river to relocate after the Idul Fitri holidays. Unfortunately the houses collapsed last night," he said.
He said apart from evacuating the people who had lived in the 21 collapsed houses, his personnel were also helping people residing in 29 other houses near the river to move. Overall, 190 people had been evacuated to safer places.
The local government had already provided social aid for the victims, namely 200 kilograms of rice, 20 boxes of instant noddle, 20 liters of cooking oil, 20 kilograms of sugar, 20 boxes of tea, 40 bottles of soya sauce and 10 boxes of mineral water.
Meanwhile, Jambi province was reported to have 23 landslide-prone national and provincial roads.
Head of the Jambi public works agency Ivan Wirata said that the province had four important roads for goods and passenger transportation especially with the approaching Idul Fitri holidays.
The four roads cover east traffic 209.13 kilometers long, and the central parts 246.95 kilometers long, and 436.21 km of connecting roads, and other roads 396.14 kilometers.
"The four roads are also landslide-prone, especially during heavy and long down pours," he said.
He said that most of the landslide-prone roads are important roads in Jambi province between Tapan, Pesisir Selatan regency, and Sungai Penuh, Kerinci regency, and the border between Sungai Penuh and West Sumatra via Solok Selatan in two locations.
Most of the landslide-prone locations are on the sides of hills and as Jambi province is covered by Bukit Barisan, a National Park and protected forests, with important roads on their side.
(T..A051/HAJM/F001)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
