Natural Disaster in Garut, West Java on 20th September 2016

Some of the supplies we brought

Entrance to Bojong Sudika Village








Unloading our supplies

All the houses directly adjacent to the river were washed away

Throughout the three days, we saw scores of mattresses either ruined or left out in the hope they would dry out and be usable again. Furniture was often destroyed, but the villagers still hoped that they would dry out. Television sets were dismantled into the picture tube, casing and PC board and left out to dry and hopefully could be used again. Large piles of clothes were everywhere, deep in the mud or in piles outside what remained of homes. Husbands would often hose down sheets and bedcovers and clothes and later their wives would hand wash everything. Very sad to see children's toys or shoes lying in the mud.

Portable Toilets

This man recently finished building his house which you can see behind him. He will have to rebuild part of it again. His house was actually the closest remaining house to the river. Everything in front and on the sides of his house had been washed away.

One of the supporting pillars was damaged and the walls of two rooms had been washed away along with most of his belongings. I didn't see his wife but there was a children playing on the pile of clothes.

This was an emergency tent provided for victims.

This man's small house was still standing but pretty badly messed up inside. He was trying to clean out the mud which was all over the place. Bear in mind that at this village the water had risen to 3m meaning it reached above the top of the walls of his house and into the roof. While I was there he was trying to clean out the small kitchen and bathroom. The task is sometimes futile as many of the small alleys outside were still filled with muddy water which wasn't draining away.

The man standing in his kitchen


This was his bedroom


His children's bedroom and their bunk beds. I am assuming his children survived but I didn't dare ask.


Above the children's bunk beds near the ceiling is a child's kite, still wet from the flood.


Much of his belongings had been washed away, but these are some of the things he managed to salvage.


The man's living room with a mud scraper and a poster of his daughter

This women's house was still standing but the roof was quite damaged. Outside her house you can see a pretty destroyed mattress, a sofa and coffee table and a wardrobe with some books on top. If you look up to just below the roof you can see the 3 metres level where the river reached.



The walls of her house were still soaking wet all the way to the top


The children's bicycles can probably be cleaned up and repaired


The roof supports of her house are made of wood and had started to collapse