He said 58 bodies were pulled from the mud and rubble of ruined houses.
“The death toll and impact of the disaster are prone to increase as search and rescue teams proceed to try to succeed in other affected areas,” he said. “The flash flooding was likely caused by a landslide.”
The waters receded, but authorities continued to attempt to evacuate people from hard-to-reach places.
“Joint search and rescue teams are still carrying out evacuations and not all affected areas have been reached due to downed trees, rocks, mud and other material,” Nugroho said.
In Doyo, one among the worst-affected areas, a housing estate was plagued by huge rocks that appeared to have fallen from a close-by mountain.
Sediment and waste swept away by the flood piled up on the sidewalk.
Dead and displaced: Indonesia counts the associated fee of the 2018 wave of natural disasters
Dead and displaced: Indonesia counts the associated fee of the 2018 wave of natural disasters
Ambulance sirens blared and heavy equipment was used to clear the roads.
The government has declared a 14-day state of emergency, Jayapura police chief Victor Dean Mackbon said.
The small plane lay partially crushed on the runway of an airport within the nearby provincial capital of Jayapura.
“The rain started last night and continued until about 1 a.m. this morning,” said Lilis Puji Hastuti, a 29-year-old mother of two young children in Sentani.
“Our house was flooded with thick mud… we immediately took our valuables and ran to our neighbor [two-floor] home to hunt shelter.
“It’s difficult to get out of this area because many roads are blocked… I’m fearful, sad and scared all at the identical time.”
Tents have been arrange in Sentani to receive flood victims and treat the injured.
Papua borders independent Papua New Guinea on an island north of Australia.
Floods are a typical occurrence in Indonesia in the course of the rainy season, which lasts from October to April.
In January, floods and landslides killed a minimum of 70 people on the island of Sulawesi, while earlier this month a whole lot of individuals in West Java province were forced to flee when heavy rains triggered severe flooding.
The Southeast Asian archipelago of about 17,000 islands is probably the most disaster-prone countries on Earth, positioned between the Pacific Ring of Fire where tectonic plates collide.
Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are frequent.
In December, the western a part of the island of Java was hit by a deadly tsunami triggered by a volcano, killing about 400 people.
Also last yr, town of Palu in Sulawesi was rocked by an earthquake and tsunami that killed hundreds, and a whole lot more died in a series of earthquakes that hit the vacation island of Lombok near Bali.
others died in a series of earthquakes that hit the vacation island of Lombok near Bali.
Additional reporting by Reuters and Associated Press
This article appeared within the print edition of the South China Morning Post as: At least 58 people have died in floods in eastern Papua province
