'The City Was Gone': Survivors Recount Flood Chaos During Rare Cyclone in Indonesia
How tidal waves of timber turned Sumatra’s towns into scenes of loss.
Thick rafts of timber at a boarding school and mosque in Karang Baru, northern Sumatra, on Dec. 14.
Photographer: Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP/Getty Images
By the time the floodwaters swallowed the ground floor of Muda Sedia hospital in Karang Baru, the building had become an island in a torrent of brown water and the power was failing. When the electricity finally cut out, a baby on oxygen support upstairs died.
As a rare cyclone-driven storm tore across northern Sumatra late last month, hospital director Andika Putra had moved patients to the second floor in this town at the edge of Indonesia’s northernmost province. Fast-moving currents isolated the compound, trapping patients, staff and neighbors for days. Nine others perished.