Tornado wreaks havoc in Indonesia: 519 houses damaged

The National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) spokesman said on Saturday that the tornado — which had a radius of  two kilometers at a speed of 60 kilometers per hour — lasted for 10 minutes and hit 10 villages in Sleman, with the Bromonila village in the subdistrict of Purwomartani reporting the most damages.

December 11, 2012 – INDONESIA – More than a dozen people have been injured and hundreds of houses left damaged after a tornado swept through the Yogyakarta district of Sleman on Friday. The National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) spokesman said on Saturday that the tornado — which had a radius of two kilometers at a speed of 60 kilometers per hour — lasted for 10 minutes and hit 10 villages in Sleman, with the Bromonila village in the subdistrict of Purwomartani reporting the most damages. “Two people were seriously injured and have to undergo treatment now, and 12 others were lightly wounded,” BNPB spokesman Sutopo Purwo said in a statement published at bnpb.go.id. Sutopo said 519 houses in total were damaged and dozens of cattle sheds and hundreds of trees also reportedly collapsed. The district head of Sleman has declared the area an emergency situation until Dec. 11. “The Sleman office of the BPNB has established an emergency station and a [makeshift] kitchen in Bromonila village,” said Sutopo, adding that people displaced from their houses had been evacuated to safe places. The tornado also disrupted some flights to and from the Adisucipto International Airport in Yogyakarta. A Merpati Airlines plane from Bandung was forced to reroute to Surabaya and a Garuda Indonesia flight from Jakarta was forced to turn back. –Jakarta Globe