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ACTNews, BOGOR - Rain had been falling from the evening
until that afternoon. From the evacuation site, three women were staring at the
Cileuksa Village Office right in front of them. The front door of the office
was full of dirt, and parts of the wall was stained by mud.
"There wasn’t another landslide. But
we are afraid that if the rain continues, the land will collapse again,"
said Rumana, a resident of Cileuksa Hamlet, Sukajaya Village, Cigudeg Subdistrict,
Bogor Regency, who was monitoring the conditions on Thursday (2/20).
They were still worried that subsequent
landslides will occur. They were too afraid that once, during heavy rains, they
fled to a mosque located on the upper side of Cileuksa Hamlet even though they
stayed outside the red zone, the landslide-prone regions that include their
hamlet.
The trauma remained even nearly two months after the disaster. Amud, one of the chiefs of the community association (RW), said that the landslide began at 5 a.m. on the first day of 2020. Even though there was initially only a small landslide, Amud and the village chief immediately evacuated the residents to the mosque on the upper side of the village.
Motorbikes parked inside the Cileuksa Village Office were buried in mud.
(ACTNews / Reza Mardhani)
"I visited every house and knocked on
every door, telling each family to go to the mosque. It’s so sad to remember
how such a big number of people had to find shelter to stay. ‘Where shall we go
to find shelter?’ I thought. That's why at that time we immediately held a
meeting with Mr. Jaro (the village head), Alhamdulillah, with the readiness of
the village chief and the villagers, 1,112 people evacuated to the mosque and
all survived," said Amud.
Nurhasan was one of the residents who fled
to the mosque. He was going to take some clothes from home for his family. Upon
seeing that the ground was still moving, he decided not to go back home.
"When I was about to get some clothes,
the land was still moving. When I reached the gate of the village, I decided to
go back to the evacuation site without having a chance to take anything. Now,
there’s no landslide, but I am still afraid of subsequent avalanches. I dare not
to go back there by myself," said Nurhasan.
Even so, Nurhasan had returned to his
house several times to get his belongings because he felt it was safe enough. However,
he is still worried.
"I am still afraid and traumatized. Last
night I could not sleep because of the rain. I just sat there listening to the
sounds outside. I have been traumatized because I saw what happened at home,
and saw the landslides around these mountains. The trauma persists. I can’t
sleep well,” said Nurhasan, who now lives with his family in a refuge.
Aksi Cepat Tanggap (ACT) has been
assisting the evacuees in Cileuksa. During the second visit, ACT brought aid
packages to the landslide-hit residents after the first batch of aid was sent
in January.
"We received information that the residents
here still live in difficulties. Their access and facilities in the evacuation
site are limited. Therefore, we brought the aid packages just like we did when
we first arrived here," said Yadi Frans Riyadi from the ACT Command Post
in Cigudeg.
The team also coordinated with various
parties including the local government. "We hope that, from this coordination, we can assist Cileuksa Village back to its normal conditions," said Yadi. []
