Unit: Disaster Assessment

Topic:Landslide case study

2014 Banjarnegara landslide

The Banjarnegara landslide happened on

The map of where the landslide
took place
the Friday 13th December 2014, about 3pm
in the afternoon when most of the villagers
are resting at home (taking a nap). The
landslide killed about 32 people and there
still 76 people missing. The landslide is 800
metres long and 20 metres high covering
vehicles and buildings. The Red Cross and
police were searching through mud trying to
find any survivors and also trying to rescue
injured animals.

There are some indications that there

could be a landslide in this area. It is
because usually in Indonesia, their
rainy seasons are from October to
April. This landslide occurs in
December so its in the middle of the
rainy seasons.
23 houses, farmers harvesting ginger
near the hillside Banaran village in
East Java. Especially Banjarnegara P olice trying to dig with their bare
is an area surrounded by indentation hands until the heavy machines arrive
of cliffs and steep hills.

There are landslides happened in Indonesia before. Landslides are common

in Indonesia during some seasons.
For examples:
1) On December 2013 there was another landslide happened in Java.
There are at least 6 Dead and 18 Missing after the heavy rains.
2) Pantai Remis landslide 21 October 1993 ( Pantai Remis in Perak,
Malaysia)
3) There was a landslide late Friday in Jemblung village in the Central of
Java provinces Banjarnegara district, said by Sutopo Purwo. There
 were 105 houses were swept away by the landslide. More than 400
residents moved to temporary shelters.

Cause
According to one of the websites, 11 days
ago there was a heavy rain there. It was
50% from its annual rain. As we know,
after the heavy rain, the soil or the ground
was all soaked. When soil touches water, it
will start to soften itself. There are trees on
top of the hill, the weight of the trees might
also be one of the reasons why the
landslide happen because the soften soil Villagers digging out a motorcycle
cant hold the weight so it started to with bare hands
collapse and the landslide happened. Theres a few other reasons, the slope
angle of the hill is 30 to 35 degrees. According to some experiments Ive done
in class, when the angle reaches about 30 to 35, the soil, sand and rocks will
started to move towards the bottom, just like a landslide.

Impacts
As we can see above, the landslide happened while most of the villagers are
resting back home. So, I think that some of them are warned and some arent.
It is because if they are warned that there will be a possibility of a landslide,
then they should always be prepared to escape but not lying at home taking a
rest. It affected quite a lot, the landslide is almost 20 meters high. It is high
enough to cover some village houses.

Also, the heavy rain caused the

landslide near Jemblung village in
central Java. More than hundreds
of houses had been destroyed by
the landslide with more than 400
residents had to move to temporary
shelters.

They might need quite a lot of

money after this landslide to fix
everything back to normal. They Villagers and volunteers trying to help a
need to rebuild the houses that got injured cow to get out from the mud
hit by the landslide, there might also be some farms around and they have to
replant all the crops and plants. Also, they need a good hospitality to heal the
injured people. In the landslide, theres also animals that are injured such as
cows and sheeps

Clean up / Recovery
Its hard to clean up the mud
caused by the landslide, so they
need to clean up by using large
and heavy machines to clear the
roads.
According to Alice Budisatrijo in
Jakarta, she said even though
people know that Indonesia is a
place that happens quite a lot of
floods and landslide. But
because of the location of this The look of the hill after the landslide
village, it is hard to reach that area by regularcars. The slope of the hill swept
away some of the village and covered the roads. The villagers tries to use
wooden sticks or even using their bare hand to dig and poke into the mud
caused by the landslide hoping to find some

Solutions
In my opinion, I think that the Indonesians should be more aware about
landslides and flood. Especially their rainy seasons which is from October to
April.
In Hong Kong, I observe while I was hiking the government covered the hills
with cements in order to keep the shape of the hill or mountain from falling.
Some of them also uses some nets to prevent from small rocks rolling off the
hill or mountain. I think that the Indonesians can also try to think about doing
the same thing to prevent from more injured or deaths caused by the landslide
every year during their rainy season.
There are some other ways to prevent from a landslide, they can try improving
the surface and subsurface drainage. It is because the main reason of a
landslide is water, earthquakes, steep slopes and the weight of the houses or
other objects.
Evaluation
I think that in this landslide report, I did pretty well. I tried to write down the
basic info I found online about the Banjarnegara landslide, such as when it
happened, what the villagers are doing... But I think that I can improve on
writing more about the impacts of the landslide to the villagers in Java.
During the process of finding the information about this landslide that
happened in 2014, sometimes its quite confusing, because when I look up on
the internet, the informations in different websites are a bit different. Especially
the number of people who were still missing and the number of people being
killed by the landslide.
Throughout the process, I learnt the about the components for creating a
landslide and I also learnt how to resist a landslide, for example: the weight of
the houses causes the landslide to happen and we can construct cement on
top of the hills to help stay in shape and can also prevent water leak into the
mud.

Reference
1) "Landslide Buries Dozens of People in Indonesia." ABC News. N.p., 01 Apr.
2017. Web. 27 Apr. 2017.
<http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-04-02/landslide-buries-dozens-of-people-i
n-central-indonesia/8407996>.
2) "2014 Indonesia Landslide." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 02 Mar. 2017.
Web. 27 Apr. 2017.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Indonesia_landslide#Cause>.
3) "32 Dead, 76 Missing in the Banjarnegara Landslide in Java, Indonesia." The
Landslide Blog. N.p., 14 Dec. 2014. Web. 27 Apr. 2017.
<http://blogs.agu.org/landslideblog/2014/12/15/banjarnegara-landslide/>.
4) Banjarnegara, Indonesia - Indonesia Landslide Kills 18, Leaves 90 Missing.
N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2017.
<http://www.vosizneias.com/187413/2014/12/14/banjarnegara-indonesia-indo
nesia-landslide-kills-18-leaves-90-missing/>.
5) "Indonesia Landslide: Many Missing in Java." BBC News. BBC, 13 Dec. 2014.
Web. 27 Apr. 2017. <http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-30459175>.
6) MailOnline, Sam Webb for. "Landslide in Indonesia Destroys Village, Killing
32- with 76 Still Missing and Hundreds Forced to Flee." Daily Mail Online.
Associated Newspapers, 14 Dec. 2014. Web. 27 Apr. 2017.
<http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2873232/Landslide-Indonesia-destro
ys-village-killing-24-84-missing-hundreds-forced-flee.html>.
 7) "Indonesia: Weather & When to Go." Selective Asia. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Apr.
2017. <http://www.selectiveasia.com/indonesia-holidays/weather>.

Pictures
1) "32 Dead, 76 Missing in the Banjarnegara Landslide in Java, Indonesia." The
Landslide Blog. N.p., 14 Dec. 2014. Web. 27 Apr. 2017.
<http://blogs.agu.org/landslideblog/2014/12/15/banjarnegara-landslide/>.
2) "Longsor Kembali Terjadi Di Dusun Jemblung." Republika Online. N.p., n.d.
Web. 27 Apr. 2017.
<http://www.republika.co.id/berita/nasional/daerah/15/05/24/noua6p-longsor-k
embali-terjadi-di-dusun-jemblung>.
3) "Landslide in Indonesia and the Need for Rural Disaster Prep." Give2Asia.
N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2017.
<http://www.give2asia.org/blogpage/landslide-in-indonesia-and-the-need-for-d
isaster-prep>.