"More than 100 houses in two neighborhoods were inundated but this time the flood was not as bad as last year when the road to other regions was cut off," Pawan Village Head Ismed Daulay said here on Monday.
Deforestation in the hilly upstream areas of the Pawan River m has worsened the flood triggered by incessant heavy rains over the past few days.
"The Pawan River upstream area has been deforested so the land could not hold the water flow when rain falls so it triggered the flood," he said.
A number of local residents were forced to evacuate to higher grounds. There was no report of casualties in the flood disaster.
"The floodwaters reached a height of a half meter to one meter, and local inhabitants choose to move to their relatives` houses not affected by flood," he said.
Meanwhile, flash floods swept away tens of houses in Aur Kuning and Batu Sangkar villages, Kampar Kiri sub district, Kampar District, Riau Province after the overflowing of the Kampar River.
Aur Kuning Village Chief Sabirin said on Friday he did not have the exact figures on the number of houses destroyed by the floods.
"For sure, the latest information from many local residents said that more than ten houses have been swept away and completely flattened," he said.
Thousands of hectares of plantations were also flooded in Kampar Kiri sub district.
"While, around 5,000 houses are submerged by flood waters reaching a height of between adult`s knee and three meters," he said.
Over 100 people from flood-affected six villages in Kampar Kiri sub district were forced to evacuate themselves to higher grounds.
At least one person was reportedly killed and two others were still missing in the floods.
(Uu.F001/HAJM/A014)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
