NU students raise funds for victims of Garut's flash floods

Tangerang, NU Online
Dozens of students of the Student Executive Board (BEM) and the Indonesian Islamic Students Movement (PMII) High Institute of Islamic Law Nahdlatul Ulama (STISNU) Tangerang Saturday took to the streets in Tangerang city Banten to raise funds for flood victims in Garut Regency.

"This fundraising is a form of our concern for the victims. We as students would feel responsible for the social catastrophe," Foreign Affairs Minister of BEM STISNU Tangerang Ahmad Fauzi Sodiq said.

Sodiq said that he would continue to raise funds to the next 3 days. He hoped this action could spark public awareness of Tangerang people to care for others.

"We would like to invite the Tangerang people to care about the disaster that struck our fellow countrymen and women as that struck the Garut (Regency). Moreover, those becoming the victims are our brothers," he said.

As reported, at least 10 people have died and three are missing after a flash flood and landslides struck Garut and Sumedang in West Java in the early hours of Wednesday (21/9/16) morning.

The flash flood struck Bayongbong, Karangpawitan, in Garut regency, at 1 a.m. Wednesday morning after heavy rainfall covered the area from Tuesday evening. The rainfall caused the Cimanuk and Cikamuri rivers to overflow, National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said recently.

The flashflood in Garut resulted in the deaths of eight people. Many others are injured and hundreds of people have had to leave their homes, Sutopo said, citing data from the Garut Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD).

The flood reached up to two meters in height after just three hours of rainfall.

"Right now, most of the flood has subsided, but [the disaster] shows that the river basin of Cimanuk River was in a critical condition," Sutopo said as reported by kompas.com.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday evening, landslides in Cimareme village, Sumedang regency, buried two houses. Two people have been found dead and two others are thought to be buried in the landslides.

A BNPB quick response team and the West Java BPBD have deployed personnel to help search for the missing victims and to assist the Garut BPBD and the Sumendang BPBD. (Masdar)