The river rose as high as a coconut tree one November morning, depositing a 10-foot-high pile of logs that crushed almost every structure in the village of Sekumur on Indonesia’s Sumatra island. “My house is buried under these logs,” said Fauzi, one of many in similar straits.
About 200 miles northwest, the deluge came a few hours earlier, sweeping away homes and also leaving behind timber. Landslides brought boulders. “The flood was what they describe as doomsday: a torrent of black water carrying debris,” said Zulfikar, another survivor.
Further north, on the coast, homes that had been built after the destructive Indian Ocean tsunami two decades ago were washed away. “This is more devastating than the tsunami,” Nur Hayati said. “The land where my house was built vanished without a trace.”
More than 1,100 people were killed in late November on Sumatra as a rare equatorial cyclone battered the northern part of the island with days of rain. The deadly flash floods and landslides were exacerbated, conservationists say, by years of unchecked logging that have left piles of tropical hardwood logs as far as the eye can see.
Now, more than a month after the cyclone hit, about 400,000 people remain displaced, mainly in Aceh Province on the island’s northern tip. Many survivors say their misery has been compounded by inadequate rescue efforts, especially a lack of heavy machinery to clear the logs, boulders and other debris.
Frustration and anger have boiled over in recent days in protests in the provincial capital of Banda Aceh and elsewhere, with some residents waving white flags to signal their desperation.
“During the tsunami, the water came, destroyed houses, then receded,” said Ms. Nur, who lives in the village of Matang Baroh in North Aceh regency. But this flood “turned our village into river estuaries,” she said, adding that “it’s been four weeks and we haven’t received any government aid.”
President Prabowo Subianto has not declared a national disaster and has refused to accept foreign aid from countries including Japan, Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates. He has insisted the situation is “under control,” with his government deploying warships, helicopters and planes to drop food packages into isolated areas across Sumatra.
The government has promised to take action against companies operating improperly and to strengthen supervision and enforcement in the field, including with more interagency coordination. The Ministry of Forestry said it has identified “indications of violations” by 12 companies in North Sumatra and plans to revoke approximately 20 permits covering 750,000 hectares, or almost 3,000 square miles.
In the meantime, quiet desperation is taking hold in places such as Takengon, a town in Central Aceh regency. The main road there remains cut off by landslides, which has led to shortages and sky-high prices for basic staples. Residents have to navigate treacherous terrain on foot, motorcycles get stuck in the mud and aid trucks line up to wait for their turn to pass through.
Rudi Prayitna, 44, and his wife, CutNovi, 43, trudged for four hours from Takengon on a challenging muddy track to buy rice, eggs, cooking gas, salted fish and other supplies.
“We left home at 7 a.m. and, God willing, will be home by 5 p.m.” Cut Novi said. “Prices have at least tripled in our village. We left our three kids with their grandparents and came shopping or we have nothing to eat.”
Her husband said their town was paralyzed. “We cannot work, everything is closed down,” he said. “It’s been almost a month and we still have no electricity. We didn’t receive any government aid.”
Mr. Prabowo, a 74-year-old former general, has faced increasing public discontent nationally this year over rising prices and unemployment, as well as his decision to cut budgets to fund a free school lunch program that critics say has benefited his political allies in the military and police.
In recent weeks, protests have erupted across Aceh as well. Last Thursday, some protesters displayed banned flags from the Free Aceh Movement — a separatist group that fought the Indonesian military for decades until a 2005 peace agreement — alongside an aid convoy, leading to a confrontation with military personnel.
Amnesty International and other rights groups have called for an investigation into allegations of excessive use of force against flood survivors; an army spokesman said the incident had been distorted on social media and denied any intent to harm civilians.
Suraiya Ismail Thaib, a senior adviser to Aceh Governor Muzakir Manaf, said in an earlier interview that the protests stemmed from disappointment. “The people are enraged,” she said. “They are desperate and urgently need help.”
She criticized the central government’s refusal to declare a national disaster, which would mobilize more aid. “We are asking for foreign aid purely to carry out a humanitarian mission. We are not carrying out any political agenda,” said Ms. Suraiya.
In Sekumur village, where Mr. Fauzi lives, residents are still living in makeshift tents — not government issue — surrounded by piles of logs, which they do not have the equipment to clear. On a recent Friday, he maneuvered his way across the debris to pray at the local mosque.
Initially, when the Tamiang River spilled over its banks on Nov. 26, residents fled to higher ground, he recalled. The water was rising abnormally fast, then suddenly their village was swept by a tsunami of wood.
“There was the loud rumbling sound of the water and the logs hitting each other,” he said. “From the top of the hill, all we could see is a sea of logs that reached as high as the dome of the mosque.”
In Seni Antara, a village in Bener Meriah regency, Mr. Zulfikar said he had also rushed his family to higher ground but went back home to retrieve documents. But the water rose so quickly that he ended up stranded on the roof beam of a neighbor’s house for a couple of hours, he said. The water “knocked out the wall, leaving me hanging for my dear life until the neighbors found me.”
Roughly a six-hour drive away, in Kualasimpang City, pools of floodwaters were visible everywhere last week along with piles of overturned, mud-covered cars and motorcycles. Hundreds of people who lost their homes were still living in relief tents. Some residents were trying to clear away the knee-deep mud that had begun to harden. Evacuees stood by the road with boxes asking for donations, while passers-by gave out packages of food, household supplies and other necessities from their cars.
Fitri Sri Wahyuni, 43, together with 10 relatives, is still depending on government handouts, which she says she has to fight other survivors for.
“We’ve lost everything. We have to start our lives from scratch,” she said, but “we don’t even know how, nor do we have the tools. All we ask for is to treat us humanely, at least treat us as human beings,” she cried.
Muktita Suhartono reports on Thailand and Indonesia. She is based in Bangkok.
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