Mitigation Not Yet Devised

By the sixth day, the 25 people missing after a landslide in Ponorogo, East Java, have not been discovered. The search has been hindered by weather, location and the massive size of the slide.

The disaster took place at Tangkil hamlet, Banaran village, Pulung district, Ponorogo. The 100-meter-high cliff collapsed when locals were harvesting ginger from their fields on Saturday (1/4). The landslide extended 800 meters and came to rest about 20 meters deep, burying 23 to 35 houses and the farmland of residents.

Actually, the landslide did not happen suddenly. Small avalanches and land cracks appeared as warnings. The question then is whether all of the warnings were heeded before the disaster occurred.