Jakarta – The death toll from the flash floods that hit Garut district in West Java rose to 27, while 22 people are still missing two days after the incident, a spokesman for the National Disaster Mitigation Agency, or BNPB, said on Friday (23/09).

Rescue workers located four more bodies late on Thursday and another one on Friday morning, after the Cimanuk River burst its banks and flooded seven areas in Garut on Wednesday.

Rescuers are now focusing their search operations on four villages in those areas, BNPB spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said in a statement. "Our focus of operations today is on the villages of Sukakarya, Cimacan, Pamingi and Sukamantri," Sutopo said.

Authorities have deployed a joint team of around 1,600 members of the Garut BPBD, National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas), National Police, Indonesian Military (TNI), Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) and volunteers in the affected areas.

They have also established emergency and first-aid posts, as well as dispatched basic necessities to more than 400 residents who have been evacuated from the areas.

Nearly 400 homes were inundated, 300 were buried in mud and more than 150 heavily damaged in the flood, the latest data from the BNPB shows.

Source: http://jakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/death-toll-rises-27-22-still-missing-w-java-floods/