Miscellaneous

Citation

(2000), "Miscellaneous", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 9 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm.2000.07309bac.005

Miscellaneous

2 January 1999 - Bali Island, Indonesia

At least 17 people were killed, six injured and more than 50 are still missing after a landslide hit workers building an irrigation channel on the Indonesian island of Bali today, a local official said. "So far, police have found 17 dead bodies and another six people have been hospitalised", Dewo Orse, an official in the south-eastern town of Gianyar, said. He said police were still trying to find more survivors.8 January 1999 - A landslide on the Indonesian holiday island of Bali has killed at least 25 people and a further 15 were missing feared dead, rescue officials said today. "Up to 13.30, local time (05.30, UTC), eight more bodies were found", I Wayan Arthana, a district spokesman of Gianyar, said. Officials had already dug up 17 bodies from yesterday's landslide in a village near Gianyar, about 25km from the local capital of Denpasar and close to the resort town of Ubud. "There are about 15 more people missing but I think they have died already", Arthana said, adding that hundreds of rescue workers were combing through the mud, saturated by days of rain. Another seven people were injured in the accident when tonnes of earth, weighed down by the rains, fell on workers who were trying to clear an irrigation channel in a rice terrace. Three of the injured have been released from hospital.11 January 1999 - Rescue workers have pulled 36 bodies from a mud-swamped rice terrace on the holiday island of Bali, hit by a landslide last week, and there is no hope for four people still missing, a local official said today. "One more body was found today and there are four more people who must have died", district spokesman I Wayan Arthana said. Seven people were injured in the landslide in a village near Gianyar, about 25km from the local capital of Denpasar and close to the resort town of Ubud. Tonnes of earth, weighed down by recent rains, fell on workers who were trying to clear an irrigation channel in the rice terrace. Two landslides also hit the region of Garut, in West Java, last week, leaving nine people dead and one missing, the local police chief said. "Three people died in the first landslide while another six died in the other landslide and one is missing", Lt-Col. Fajar Purnomo, Garut police chief, said. He said the landslides happened on Friday, 8 January. Purnomo said the first incident happened when four people were working on a drinking water pipe and the second hit people cleaning a street.

15 January 1999 - Western Ghats, India

Police and firemen today searched for more bodies under the debris after part of a hill collapsed in southern India during an annual Hindu pilgrimage, killing at least 51 people, agencies said. The 60ft hillock in the Western Ghats range partially collapsed late yesterday as devotees flocked to watch a ritual lighting of lamps at the pilgrimage centre of Pamba near the shrine at Sabarimata, about 150km from Trivandrum, capital of Kerala state. A stampede broke out as the crowd swelled and people began to fall from the top of the hill, agencies said. The stampede caused part of the hill to cave in, burying many under the mound. Newspapers said ten bodies had been identified so far. Villagers joined firemen in carrying out rescue operations as police tried to identify the bodies of those pulled out from the debris. More people are feared to be still buried. Domestic news agencies said the death toll was likely to go up as many of the injured were in a serious condition.

19 April 1999 - Hebei Province, China

A press report, dated today, states: Thirty-two people were drowned in two coal mines in Hebei province, which the Government had ordered to close, state media reported yesterday. The miners were working in the Duguilin and Sunyuming coal mines in Ci county near Handan city when water flooded in on 7 March, the China Coal Report said. The mines, on the edge of a reservoir, had been ordered to shut last year after water seeped into the pits, the paper said. But the miners had secretly resumed work and drowned after water flooded in. City government officials had tried to investigate the matter but were rebuffed by county officials who said there had been no deaths.