Seroja – Cyclone 2021

Tropical cyclone Seroja hit the Nusa Tengara Timur region in beginning of April 2021. It started on the ocean south of Timur and moved very slowly south west. When it was north of Roti island it became officially recognized as cyclone. Seroja caused thunderstorms with heavy rainfall. Land slides and flash floods occurred, more than 270 people died and a lot of infrastructure was damaged or destroyed.
Domestic TV covered mainly the Flores region were a lot of people died in a small area due to flash floods and land slides. When we got a go, we decided to approach the area of Timur which was more hit by rain and wind but the impact was in a greater area.

A problem I became first time aware in Palu due to the liquefactions, is that in case of moving soil many people, if they survive it, not only loosing their house, but often also their land.

In Kupang we reached out to a local charity group, and to a church in the outskirts of Kupang city. Pastor Dody and pastor Jenny are taking care and reaching out to a huge area south and west of Kupang city.
Pak Chandra organized and paid for our stay in Kupang. Dr Sugi helped us sourcing and connected us to the local government and their crisis leader board. Pastor Jenny and Pastor Dody took us to the rural areas where no organization showed up to for help. They took care about transportation and food. And Pastor Timothy did a gorgeous additional fundraising from over seas while we where there.

We went with Ps Dody and Ps Jenny to South-West of Kupang city. Many Houses there were broken mainly lost their roofs. Many people reject to move into camps and living at neighbors or family places. Most damage was done due to low building quality. That means that poor people are hit most. We visited a refugee camp that was a school before the Covid crisis started. Now it is home to 37 families including kids and elderly.

Dr Sugi introduced us to the governments crisis headquarter. There we asked for where is the biggest need and we learned that in the Malaka region close to the Timor Leste country border happened a huge flash flood happened, many people are effected and diarrhea and skin issues became a problem. So we decided to approach this region, and even it was a long ride there, it was a good decision.

The flash flood had impacted a wide area in a river delta. The flood rose in some places more than 1.5 meter, took almost all life stock mainly pigs, everything what was loose, destroyed the fields and sealed everything with a thick mud layer. Many wells were spilled with dirt and dead animals. We heard from locals unofficially about that 10 people died in the whole area.
The people in this moment didn’t know what to do. A lot of things were gone or damaged, the wells were spilled and the soil sealed in a rural agricultural area. And because of the distance to the harbor and airport in Kupang and some damaged roads not much help from outside came.

Then we did in collaboration with Ps Dodi and Ps Jenny an approach to the Nekamese region. This region got cut off by a broken bridge in the south close to the ocean. We tried to access this region over a small road through the mountain from the north, but had to learn that a landslide had interrupted this life line as well.
We were lucky to hire to small pick-up trucks on the other side of the landslide. We carried all our goods pass the broken road and loaded them on these trucks.