Universitas Indonesia (UI), through the Community Service and Empowerment Directorate Team (DPPM), conducted the activity “UI Peduli Kebencanaan: Banjir Bandang dan Tanah Longsor di Kabupaten Sukabumi” (UI Cares for Disasters: Flash Floods and Landslides in Sukabumi Regency), on Friday, December 13. This activity was attended by a number of students from the Nursing First Aid Faculty of Nursing (FIK) and was chaired by one of the lecturers at FIK UI, Riri Maria, S.Kp., MANP.
Riri said that the arrival of the UI Peduli Team on Friday afternoon was greeted by rain in Cikembang Village, Cikembar District. The rain lasted until Saturday morning, December 14. The team continued their journey to Ciemas Village which took approximately 6 hours from Cikembang Village. Along the way, the team passed through several sub-districts and villages, including Jampang Tengah District, Lengkong District, Djampang Kulon District, Ciracap District, and Waluran District. “The road that was passed was quite steep and rocky, and the team found several points that were hit by landslides, causing the road to collapse,” said Riri.
She further said that upon arriving at the Ciemas District Office, the UI Peduli Team met with the Coordinator of the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) Sukabumi, Endang. She revealed that there were several accesses that could not be passed, such as the Kiara Dua-Paltiga road and access from Loji Village. “Even access from the Ciemas District Office was very difficult to reach. Only on Saturday, December 7 – Sunday, December 8 could the access be used again, even though the incident had occurred since Tuesday, December 4,” said Endang.
After coordinating, the UI Peduli Team continued their journey to the disaster location, namely Ciemas Village. The Head of Ciemas Village, Wahyu, said that Ciemas Village was the area with the worst conditions in Ciemas Village, Ciemas District, Sukabumi Regency. “Cimas Village is the worst hit, we were isolated from electricity and signal for 10 days. The road to the village was also cut off so that disaster information from here was very late to reach the center,” said Wahyu.
He explained that the most needed food is raw food. This is because the difficult terrain makes it impossible to deliver ready-to-eat food. In addition, this village consists of approximately 400 Heads of Families (KK) or around 1,000 people, including Ciemas Village, Cigulusur Village, and several other villages behind the mountain which were also affected by the very severe landslide.
Not only that, residents also had difficulty getting fuel such as BBM and kitchen fuel, which had to be found in quite far locations. Currently, residents are slowly returning to their respective settlements, but the local government is still building post tents as a mitigation effort.
Meanwhile, the UI Peduli Team also visited one of the villages that was reported to still be submerged in quite severe flooding, one of which was Mandrajaya Village. Upon arrival, the team was greeted by the Head of Mandrajaya Village, Ajat. He reported that there were 298 families or 1,003 people affected in four hamlets, namely Nyalindung Hamlet, Ciawet Hamlet, Citangkil Hamlet, and Cikadal Hamlet.
On this occasion, the UI Peduli Team provided assistance in the form of 20 packages of cleaning equipment, 50 packages of basic necessities, 600 packages of school supplies, 50 packages of baby food, 50 packages of sanitary napkins, 100 packages of milk and healthy snacks, and public kitchen needs for approximately 1,500 people which were divided into several posts in Ciemas Village and Mandrajaya Village. Not only that, the UI Peduli Team also carried out trauma healing for children at the disaster post.
“The UI Disaster Care activity is a form of concern and collaboration with the local government, the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI), and the Sukabumi Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD) to help communities affected by the disaster. With joint efforts, it is hoped that the community can immediately recover from the impact of the disaster and continue their lives better,” said Riri.
