Death count rises in East Timor floods, says UN mission
19 May -- Over eighty people have been confirmed dead -- most of them East Timorese refugees - in the intense flooding that continues to ravage West Timor, the United Nations mission reported today from East Timor's capital, Dili.
Some 21,000 people are estimated to have been displaced, 16,000 of whom were from 21 refugee camps for East Timorese in the Belu District of south-eastern West Timor, according to the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET). It estimated that some 300 square kilometres of West Timor had been flooded.
UN agencies working in the area report that at least 80 people are missing due to the floods, which are the worst to be reported in West Timor in 22 years according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). They have also led to population movements and evacuations, with 2,435 more people moving today from low-lying areas to higher grounds and a total of nearly 4,000 people evacuated during the last 48 hours, UNTAET said.
UNHCR aerial reconnaissance estimates that 10 to 15 per cent of the houses in the area have been destroyed and a further 25 per cent damaged.
Five trucks from the World Food Programme (WFP) left early today from Dili for Betun, transporting 20,000 full-day rations for the flood-stricken populations. A WFP helicopter has also airlifted 3.5 tonnes of food to the affected areas, while the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has transported plastic sheeting, mosquito nets, cooking utensils and other items to Betun.
