At least 10 dead, thousands displaced after severe Indonesia floods

At least 10 people are dead and eight are missing after days of heavy rain-triggered floods and landslides on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, authorities said Sunday.

Some 12,000 people have been evacuated while hundreds of buildings, bridges and roads have been damaged by the severe weather which affected nine districts or towns across Bengkulu province, officials said.

The waters have receded in some places but officials warned the full extent of the damage was not yet known and some areas were still cut off.

"The impact of this disaster may increase," national disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said, adding that several people were also injured in the flooding.

"Landslides and floods could happen again if rainfall is high," he said.

A "secondary disaster" in the form of skin diseases and acute respiratory infection due to poor hygiene and a lack of clean water was possible, he added.

Aerial images showed swollen rivers that had burst their banks and inundated settlements in some parts of the province.

Public kitchens and evacuation shelters have been set up to cater to some 13,000 people affected by the flooding, while search and rescue teams try to reach hard-hit areas with rubber boats.

"The distribution of aid has been hampered because road access has been cut off by the floods and landslides," Nugroho said, adding excavators were being used to clear debris from roads.

Landslides and floods are common in Indonesia, especially during the monsoon season between October and April, when rains lash the vast Southeast Asian archipelago.

Flooding in parts of the Indonesian capital Jakarta this week killed at least two people and forced more than 2000 to evacuate their homes.

Residents of Bogor, a satellite city of Jakarta, had to contend with some 14 pythons that were set loose from a private property due to the high waters.

Six of the snakes -- which were as long as four metres -- have been found, but the remaining eight remain on the loose, officials said.

Dike breached, thousands evacuated near Montreal as floods worsen
Montreal (AFP) April 28, 2019 - Over 6,500 people were told to quickly leave their homes near Montreal late Saturday and early Sunday after floodwaters breached a dike in rain-soaked eastern Canada.

The evacuations came as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called for increased measures to make infrastructure "climate resilient."

The flooding across Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick "highlights how important it is that we fight climate change, that we adapt and mitigate the impacts of more extreme weather events," he said.

According to the latest government data, nearly 8,000 people have been forced from their homes in Quebec -- more than in 2017, during what was then the area's worst flooding in half a century.

The barrier protecting Sainte-Marthe-sur-le-Lac, just west of Montreal, gave way Saturday night, causing a surge of water of up to 1.5 meters (five feet) to crash through the area.

"We didn't have time to do anything, the water rose while were chatting, I just had time to take my medication," one resident told public broadcaster Radio-Canada.

Hundreds of policemen, firefighters and soldiers helped evacuate nearly 2,600 homes in the area, a provincial police spokesman said.

"It's going very well. Thankfully no one was injured, no one is missing," Sergeant Daniel Thibodeau said.

Around 1,700 soldiers have been deployed to the hardest-hit regions -- and Montreal and Ottawa declared states of emergency last week.

In Fredericton, New Brunswick, crews have been busy hauling away driftwood and debris as waters start to recede. More than 400 households were flooded in the province, and the main highway connecting to the rest of Canada remained closed.

In Ottawa, a bridge connecting the capital to Gatineau, Quebec was closed and 18 residents fled their flooded homes.

Trudeau was in the Ottawa area on Saturday for a briefing from emergency management officials -- where he helped to fill sandbags with his young son.

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