The dead and displaced: Indonesia counts the cost of 2018’s wave of natural disasters
- More than 4,600 people have died or disappeared in a slew of catastrophic events to hit the Southeast Asian archipelago this year
Some 40,000 people have now been displaced by last week’s deadly tsunami in Indonesia – nearly double the initial figure – while more than 7,000 were injured in the disaster, officials said on Friday.
Authorities made the announcement as they trimmed the official death toll to 426, from a previous tally of 430, with double-counting by different districts blamed for the change. Two dozen people remain missing almost a week after the disaster.
In total, more than 4,600 people have died from natural disasters this year in Indonesia. The Southeast Asian archipelago is one of the most disaster-hit nations on Earth because of its position straddling the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, where tectonic plates collide.
The country’s National Disaster Mitigation Agency, in a briefing on December 19 four days before the killer tsunami struck, said there had been 2,426 disasters so far in 2018, causing the deaths or disappearances of 4,231 people.
Agency chief Willem Rampangilei said most of the country’s natural disasters this year had actually been caused by floods, landslide and tornadoes – though geological events produced a larger death toll, according to national news agency Antara.