Jakarta – Fendi, a resident of Jorong Toboh, Nagari Malalak Timur, Malalak District, Agam Regency, West Sumatra, never expected that his hometown would now be completely destroyed in an instant after being hit by a flash flood or galodo. Fendi described the moments when the flood came until he was able to save several people. At that time, Wednesday (26/11), around 15.00 WIB, Jorong (Dusun) Toboh, like other villages in East Malalak, was hit by a flash flood that suddenly rushed down the hills. From the video footage circulating, the galodo looks like a huge white wave hitting everything in its path, including the village below. Fendi saw the flow of the galodo directly with the naked eye. Before the flash flood reached residential areas, he clearly heard loud explosions from the hills. SCROLL TO CONTINUE CONTENT Fendi spontaneously shouted at the residents around the town to save themselves. He and several residents quickly ran to safety. “I saw directly from the hill that the water was white and the wood began to slide quickly. I tried to shout at the residents to save themselves immediately,” Fendi said as reported by Antara, Saturday (6/12/2025). Fendi himself ran for higher ground. From there he saw the village, which was initially full of tranquility, vast green rice fields, farmers drying cinnamon sticks by the side of the road and the small laughter of children, suddenly turned into a sea of mud and piles of wood. He heard the screams very clearly. His mind was broken, his heart was broken. But not his courage. Armed with the courage and conscience that still remains in him, he helps to save residents one by one. In fact, without realizing it, the man who was already five years old could carry two mothers at once while the flood was still raging. “To be honest, I couldn’t believe that that afternoon I was able to carry two women whose body weight was much greater than mine. Maybe it was God’s strength,” recalls Fendi. Fendi knows very well that in crisis situations the impossible can sometimes be done without realizing it. Moreover, he has experience of escaping death when liquefaction occurred in Palu on September 28, 2018. At that time, the Minangkabau man tried his luck in Palu. However, his luck was not always good. There he had to struggle between life and death to escape the threat of liquefaction. Several years later, Fendi again felt the bitterness of the natural disaster that leveled his ancestral land. Fendi quietly recounted how he was unable to save a number of residents who asked for his help. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to, the mud conditions up to three meters high made his good intentions to save the victim impossible. In Fendi’s memory, there were at least four to five people, including his in-laws, whom he saved from death threats. He took them all to a small cabin. Afterwards, Fendi ran to the Tandikek area, the nearest village to the disaster site, for help. “I asked the residents there to contact the TNI, Police and BNPB to help the residents,” he said. Fendi said at around 22:00 WIB, members of the West Sumatra Police Mobile Brigade arrived at the disaster site. However, at that time, rain was still falling in the sky in East Malalak. Conditions were pitch black because the electricity went out. The next morning, Thursday (27/11), a joint SAR team consisting of Basarnas Padang, Brimob Polda West Sumatra, BPBD, PMI, volunteers and the community began combing the town area to search for flash flood victims. One by one, the dead victims began to be found. Weeps and tears never stop flowing from those who have survived death. Each orange body bag was opened one by one to confirm their identity. To find and evacuate victims, the joint SAR team faced a very difficult challenge. Piles of material in the form of mud, wood, large stones and collapsed house materials are the main obstacles. Apart from that, at the same time, the search was also shrouded in concerns about flash floods and subsequent landslides. At that time, the rain was still drenching Nagari Malalak Timur, making the search field increasingly difficult. In fact, on the second day of the search, Friday (28/11), several Brimob and Basarnas Padang personnel fell up and down carrying the bodies. However, this noble task was finally completed after the SAR team delivered the body to the ambulance. Every body identified is immediately washed, prayed for and buried. Residents who have not found their relatives can only pray while hoping that their relatives will be found dead or alive. Chief of Jorong Toboh Hasbi said this is the first time the village has been hit by a flash flood. Before, galodo took place but far away from that place. He and the community are still thinking hard about the factors that were the main cause of the flash flood that flattened their village. It has not yet been discovered whether illegal logging is taking place on these hills or not. What is certain, however, is that the people in the nagari generally work as cinnamon farmers. This spice, with the Latin name cinnamomum verum, is very commonly found in the Malalak district and its surroundings. It has long been the livelihood of residents. Of the disaster that occurred, one thing made Hasbi and the local community reflect. He did not expect the flow of the flash flood to hit their town so quickly, but instead it split in two as they approached a mosque. “I still can’t believe it, the flash flood flow was split in two when it approached the mosque and the village, so the water was split in two,” he said. Referring to the One Disaster Data Dashboard data, the West Sumatra Provincial Government as of Saturday (6/1/2025), the death toll due to the hydrometeorological disaster in Ranah Minang has reached 226 people. Then 28 were not identified, 213 are still in search status, 112 were injured, 22,355 residents were displaced. The disaster caused 3,332 houses to be slightly damaged, 990 houses to be moderately damaged, 1,759 houses to be severely damaged, 35,792 houses to be flooded and 1,028 houses to be lost or washed away. Disasters occurred in 16 districts and cities or spread over 50 sub-districts. The government estimates that losses from this disaster reached IDR 1,707,628,681,505. (eva/idh)
