Cyclone leaves 20 dead, over 1,700 houses damaged in Indonesia

JAKARTA, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- The Indonesian disaster management agency reported on Friday that 20 people were dead and 1,709 houses were destroyed after cyclone from the Indian Ocean triggered landslides, floods and whirl winds in the provinces, an official said.

The natural disaster also injured four people and forced 1,879 others to flee home and take shelters in safer grounds, spokesman of the national disaster management agency Sutopo Purwo Nugroho disclosed.

"Risk assessment of the natural disaster persistently undertakes. Not all the affected-areas can be accessed," he told Xinhua.

A seven-day emergency status has been declared since Nov. 27 to help ease the emergency relief efforts, involving 1,174 soldiers and scores of policemen, personnel of disaster agency and search and rescue office, and volunteers, said Sutopo.

Aid, including foods, baby foods, medicines and others, has been flowing in to the affected persons, he added. Enditem