Kupastuntas.co, Lampung English - From January to early July 2023, it was recorded that five people died in the waters of the West Coast. Two of them have yet to be found. In the records of the Regional Disaster Management Agency, this is the impact of extreme weather which several times hit the area nicknamed the Land of the Inner Sai and Ulama.

According to Acting Head of the West Coast District Regional Disaster Mitigation Agency, Hermansyah, until July 2023 his party had recorded 26 cases of extreme weather.

"Out of these cases, 5 people died due to drowning in the waters of the West Coast, and the most recent Itera student became a victim," he said, Tuesday 11 July 2023.

Herman added, not all of the drowning victims' bodies were found. Because until now there are two victims whose bodies have not been found to date. The incident occurred last January which befell two fishermen.

"Until now the victim has not been found, only the boat has been found, and even then it is already in Cilacap, Central Java. Meanwhile, the two victims have not found any signs of their whereabouts to date," he continued.

This is not the first time that an extreme weather event has caused a number of victims to drown and die in Pesisir Barat Regency. Almost every year there are incidents that occur, although they do not always end in cases of death.

In 2022, there will be 10 fatalities due to extreme weather. The majority of the victims worked as fishermen and disappeared while fishing in the middle of the sea.

"For the 10 victims, not all of them died from drowning, there were 7 who drowned, 3 others due to landslides. In addition to the deaths, there were also survivors, two fishermen who were found in Java waters and were rescued by a large passing ship," he said.

Hermansyah appealed to the public to continue to increase their awareness of the current weather conditions. This is because Pesisir Barat Regency is one of the areas prone to natural disasters.

"Especially for fishermen, we always urge them to always pay attention to weather conditions when going to sea because we don't know what conditions are like in the middle of the sea so that unwanted things don't happen to our fishermen," he added.

"We also always remind the public as well as tourist visitors to always be careful while paying attention to safety and appeals from tour managers so that unwanted things don't happen," he concluded.

Previously, a 22-year-old Sumatran Institute of Technology (Itera) student, Herry, who was conducting KKN in the West Coast, was swept away by the waves at Kebang Dalam Beach, West Coast District. Herry was found several days later in a lifeless condition.

The incident started when the victim and his colleagues and Pekon Kerbang Dalam youth were playing football on the beach on Wednesday 5 July 2023 afternoon.

Around 04.00 PM the victim and his partner were bathing on the beach after playing football, when a big wave came. The victims were swept away by the current and lost in the waves, while the others made it safely to land.

This information was reported by the Secretary of the Regional Disaster Management Agency, West Coast, Herman to Basarnas Lampung via the Tanggamus SAR Post.

Following up on the report, Head of Basarnas Lampung Office, Deden Ridwansah, dispatched a team of Rescue from the Tanggamus SAR Post, and a supported diving team from the Lampung Basarnas Office to go to the location and carry out a search and rescue operation.

Deden explained, the Tanggamus SAR Post Rescue team arrived at the location on Thursday 6 July 2023 at around 01.00 AM and immediately coordinated with the Joint SAR elements consisting of the Lampung Regional Police, West Coast Police, West Coast Police Regional Disaster Management Agency, West Coast, village officials and local fishermen.

"The search was carried out visually from the shoreline until 02.00 AM and the results were still zero," he said.

He continued, at 06.30 WIB the search was carried out again, the Joint SAR team was divided into 3 SRU (SAR Rescue Units). SRU I used a Basarnas rubber boat to conduct a search with a search area of 6 Nm (Nautical Mile) to the northeast.

SRU II used a fishing boat to carry out a search with a search area of 7 Nm radius to the southeast. And SRU III carried out a visual search on the beach as far as 2.5 km from the incident location.

Herry Isai's body was found on Saturday 8 July 2023 around 07.45 WIB by the Lampung Basarnas team. The coordinator of the Tanggamus SAR Post, Roby Rusliansyah, said that the victim's body was found 5.56 kilometers from the incident location.

"The joint team found him, his body was found dead. The team managed to find the victim who was still in the vicinity of Kerbang Dalam Beach, a distance of 3 Nautice Mile (5.56 Kilometers) from the location where the victim was swept away," he said. (*)

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