‘I decided I’d die’: Indonesia’s flood victims recount stories of survival

Nurdin and his wife’s house in Aceh Province, in Indonesia, was submerged in water last week, and the elderly couple climbed onto their bed as a result.

Nurdin, who had a stroke, accepted his fate by putting himself in a wheelchair.

“I was merely waiting to pass away. Nurdin, who resides in the city of Langsa, told Al Jazeera, “I didn’t want to leave my home.”

My wife insisted we leave, but I made the decision to just go there.

Nurdin’s younger brother called the couple’s nearby neighbors for assistance as the water rose.

The water was chest-deep by the time Nurdin’s neighbors arrived on Wednesday at around 4am to help the pair.

The 71-year-old woman who uses a single name, like many Indonesians, said, “We were hit by a strong water current, which knocked my neighbor off his feet, and we both plunged into the flood.”

I started drowning because I couldn’t stand up, and I thought, “This is it.”

Nurdin and his wife were unhurt when they arrived at their neighbor’s house, but torrential rains soon caused the pair to flee to a nearby mosque using a table as a makeshift stretcher.

No clothes were present, so Nurdin simply required me to put on a sarung. I spent four days there, I thought.

Nurdin claimed that another Langsa resident had informed him that he lived nearby a cemetery and that the deluge had seen bodies emerge from the ground and disappear into the water.

Nurdin, who has been staying at his brother’s house since the floodwaters have receded, has not yet returned to his home, but his sibling informed him that almost everything has been completely destroyed when he went to the scene.

“Possibly a portion of my belongings can be saved. My fridge was destroyed, according to Nurdin, and everything in the kitchen is gone.

“All of my clothes were covered in water and mud, and the doors to my wardrobes were ripped off.” Around a half-meter of mud still sits in front of my house.

More than 1, 140 people have died in recent weeks due to severe weather caused by three tropical cyclones in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Malaysia.

In Indonesia alone, at least 631 people have died.

The death toll is anticipated to rise as many of the island’s main cities remain inaccessible.

Following flash floods, which caused roads to become impassable and hampered search and rescue efforts, many parts of the island have been buried in landslides.

Nurkasyah, a 70-year-old resident of northern Aceh Province’s Kuta Makmur, is one of the many people who almost have lost all of their belongings.

“My rice was destroyed,” Nurkasyah told Al Jazeera, “and my refrigerator, my rice cooker, and all of my rice.”

“I can’t use everything in my house because it was submerged in water.” It didn’t float away. If I leave my bed outside and allow it to dry in the sun for a few days, I might be able to save it.

In response to torrential rain overnight, the waters started rising on Tuesday, but gradually subsided before rising again on Wednesday as a result. Water was “coming in through the windows.”

Nurkasyah and 300 others hid for the next five days in a nearby community center, eating only the few essential items the terrified residents could not get before fleeing the rising waters.

“We merely consumed some eggs, instant noodles, and rice.” She claimed that there wasn’t enough food to go around. I went to see my house, but it’s now mud-filled, so I’m unable to live there.

Nurkasyah’s son, Nasir, was traveling by bus from Banda Aceh, the provincial capital of Aceh, to Medan, the provincial capital of neighboring North Sumatra at the same time that Nurkasyah was watching the floodwaters rise around her home.

Although the road trip typically takes about 12 hours, Nasir ended up stranded on a bus for the following five days.

He told Al Jazeera, “We could still get through, even though the floodwaters were starting to rise after we left on Tuesday.”

The driver, who was speaking in a town along the&nbsp, border of Aceh and North Sumatra provinces, said, “Unfortunately, when we got to Kuala Simpang on Wednesday afternoon, he said he couldn’t go any further or go back.”

Nasir and the other passengers climbed onto the roof of the bus to check on the scene as the town began to become submerged in rising floodwaters.

A group of us decided to take the initiative and try to find an alternative route out of there on Sunday morning, Nasir said.

“We all came to the same conclusion: There is no way we can go back to Aceh, and we must continue to Medan.” A fisherman owned the boat that we used to travel on, and a pick-up truck took us the rest of the way.

With so much mud, fallen trees, and other debris, Nasi is now facing an arduous journey home.

Source: Aljazeera