I was coming home from a water project late on the 23rd of January. It had been raining most of the day, and I was waiting at a friend's house on the north side of the island. I was waiting for the heavy rains to stop. After about an hour of waiting, I decided it was time to just brave the rains and hop on my motorbike. I had a 2 hour drive down to my house on the south part of the island. I wasn't looking forward to it.
After about 45 minutes, I was reaching the top of the ridge of mountains that separates north and south Bali. The rain was incredible. In my six years here, I have never been in a storm like that. The thunder was deafening and almost constant, and I felt like I was driving through the lightning bolts. Scary...
At the top of the mountain, I could no longer see. If my visor was down, it was not clear. If it was up, my eyes filled up with water and made for almost zero visibility. Thankfully, I was near a friend's home, so I stopped. He gave me an awesome rain jacket, and I remember something he said to me, "In a rainstorm like this, there are going to be big landslides. It's not a matter of if, but when and where."
I continued my drive. Two hours of facing blinding rain, crossing through flooded sections of road, passing by several fallen trees, dodging other debris that had been washed into the road, but I didn't come across a landslide.
I was saddened to read the news reports the following morning: 4 deaths and 3 injuries in the very same part of the island that I had traveled through.
Here's the story from Nusa Bali:
(1/26/2014)
Flooding and landslides that have affected parts of Buleleng
in North Bali on Thursday, January 23, 2014, are being blamed for 4
deaths and 3 injuries. Two of the fatalities occurred in a single vehicle overwhelmed by a
landslide that swept the car and its passengers into a 30-meter deep
ravine.
The accident happened on the main road connecting Singaraja to Denpasar via Kintamani. The car was swept off the road in the village of Mangening at Kubutambahan in Buleleng. The accident occurred at 5:00 pm on Thursday when the men were traveling to Tegalalang. The depth of the ravine and landslide conditions only allowed rescuers to retrieve the men’s bodies at 7:00 am the following morning.
The two other fatalities claimed the lives of Ni Kadek Sri Ayu Padmini, a student of STKIP from Bebetin Village in Buleleng, and Ni Made Ayu Budi Utami from Lokapaksa Village also in Buleleng.
Padmini was found dead in the middle of a rice field near her home at 11:30 pm on Thursday night, swept to that location by landslides and rushing flood water. The motorcycle she was riding at the time of the mishap was recovered on Friday morning.
Made Ayu Budi Utami perished when a wall at her home toppled down and killed her on Thursday evening at 10:00 pm.
The rains and winds that struck North Bali also affected Bangli, Tabanan, Gianyar and Badung. The floods in the area are blamed for the destruction of 18 homes and two motorbikes in four separate villages. Bali Daily says “scores of houses were swept away" in Petemon and Pengastulan villages by the surging water from the nearby Tukad Saba River.”
