Heavy rains flood Indonesia

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JAKARTA, Nov. 15 (UPI) -- Heavy rains in Indonesia caused widespread flooding across Sumatra and Kalimantan provinces, residents said.

Flooding wreaked havoc on roads in central Kalimantan, prompting detours along bad roads that added some hours of travel time, the Jakarta Globe reported Friday.

In Palembang, floodwaters were more than 3 feet deep in some areas, residents said.

"Every time it rains, it always floods here because the level of the Bendung River is now level with that of the road and just a little more water will make it overflow," said Senen Somad, the head of a flooded neighborhood in the Gersik area of Palembang.

In South Nias, hundreds of people from the village Hilisimaetano Ndraso are living in temporary shelters because their village was inundated by water overflowing from the Eho River after heavy rains over the weekend.

"The government has built a coordinating post for the relief efforts since the first floods early this week and various relief assistance has been distributed to the displaced," said Arototona Mendrofa, head of the South Nias Disaster Mitigation Agency. Authorities have also readied a medical team for immediate deployment.