"The whirlwinds killed one person, slightly injured another, and damaged 697 houses. The dead victim was Suryani, 40, an inhabitant of Tempa Sub District. She was hit by a falling tree," Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, a spokesman of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) said here, Tuesday.
The strong wind damaged 66 houses in Wakasawito Sub District, 50 in Materobulu, 135 in Tiroang, 131 in Tempa, 101 in Matero, 47 in Panua, 83 in Ranriskan, 41 in Patapanua, 25 in Lembang, 16 in Paletea, and two in Tupa, he said.
Local disaster mitigation officers with the assistance of police and military personnel are currently helping the whirlwind victims clean up the debris.
A number of people whose houses were damaged evacuated themselves to relatives` houses.
Pinrang had been hit by whirlwinds previously, namely in February, March, October and December last year, and a number of houses had been damaged in the disaster.
During 2012, Indonesia was hit by a total of 729 disasters, and 259 of them or 36 percent, were whirlwinds.
Last year, whirlwinds killed a total of 36 people, forced 27,254 people to take refuge, seriously damaged 3,885 houses, moderately damaged 1,968 houses, and slightly damaged 12,737 houses throughout the country.
Whirlwinds affect Indonesians every year. As a result of global warming, the number of whirlwinds is on the rise every year.
"Global warming leads to the formation of clouds (cumulonimbus) that can trigger whirlwinds," Sutopo said.
Some 115 million people reside in 404 districts/cities in Sumatra, Northern Java, East Nusa Tenggara and South Sulawesi, which are prone to whirlwinds.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2013
