At least 23 residents of Ngawi District, East Java, were killed by floods and landslides which hit the district a few days ago, ANTARA reported. Four of the fatalities occurred in Ngawi sub district, 10 in Kwadungan, three in Geneng, one in Padas, four in Sine, and another in Pitu sub district. Most of the victims were elderly people, according to Muhammad Sodik Tri, a coordinator of Ngawi District's disaster mitigation office, here on Tuesday. He said the provisional death toll might increase as rescuers were still searching for more possible victims. The disaster damaged some 23,894 houses located in 11 sub districts, namely in Kwadungan, Mantingan, Widodaren, Kedunggalar, Pitu, Paron, Ngawi, Karanganyar, Pangkur, Padas, Geneng and Sine. Kwadungan and Geneng were the worst-hit sub districts, Ngawi Deputy District Chief Budi Sulistiyono said. "In both sub districts, the flood waters reached a height of 3 to 4 meters," he said. In Geneng sub district, 5,870 houses were seriously damaged and 150 collapsed, while in Kwadungan, 5,730 houses considerably damaged and 6 others destroyed. The Ngawi district administration suffered material losses totaling around Rp40 billion by the damage floods had done to public infrastructures such as schools, government offices, community health centers, roads and bridges. The local administration would provide Rp3 million in assistance to repair each damaged house, he said. A total of 120,000 residents or 30,000 families in Ngawi have been affected by the floods and landslides.
