Hundreds of households from Ambenob LLG of Madang Province have been left without food, water, livestock and household items as a result of flash flooding on Friday 15th December.
The several communities affected live along two rivers that stream down from the mountains, the river Biges and Kapundik. It is believed that due landslides, coupled with the week-long heavy rains caused the two the rivers to swell to an unimaginable size.
The floods reached around 2 meters in height sweeping away anything and everything along the way. Many of the houses on high stilts were lucky, but not lucky enough as everything in their houses was ruined by the water.
Houses on the ground including their “haus cooks” with all kitchenware and utensils have been swept away by the flood. Even all their livestock and pets of pigs, chicken, dogs and other animals were also taken by the rushing water.
According to the villagers, they have not seen something like this before apart from normal swelling of the river. One of the victims Lemcy Patapu, states that he slept around 8pm when the rain just started and was awoken by the feeling of being wet and thought that one of his children probably wet the bed. However, when he woke up to check his kids, he saw that they all were covered in water, he checked outside and saw that their verandah was a gushing stream of water, it was 12am by then.
They all woke up and called for help but everyone was caught up in their own situation that they needed to act fast to get out before they get swept away by the flood. They held onto empty water containers, others made rafts from floating bamboos, used canoes to escape to higher grounds, to safety. The floods receded in the morning, to which all these communities were left baffled as to what they were going to do now.
Meantime, Governor Ramsey Pariwa was notified at 2am when the flooding was at its peak and headed to Mabonob ward 10 of Ambenob to see the destruction caused by the flooding. It was drastic, as all their gardens, and betel nut plantations have been damaged by the floods. What is left now are dirt and mud layered covers on the whole area.
The District Disaster Office was alerted of the situation. The Disaster director Rudolph Mongallee was present to carry out an assessment on ground and the extent of the flood damages.
Governor Pariwa advised all villagers that based upon the assessment report from the Disaster Office, funding support will be sourced to assist those affected.