Timorese Evacuated as Flooding Kills 125

U.N. and Indonesian officials evacuated residents Friday from lowlands in Timor, where deadly floods have ravaged the Indonesian-held western half of the island and were moving east.

Flood waters have claimed the lives of at least 125 refugees in West Timor camps and have toppled bridges and swept away key roads.

All roads leading from Dili, East Timor’s capital, have been washed out, leaving residents and aid workers unable to travel farther than 30 miles from there by road.

Monsoons drenched the region for weeks, but the floods began only this week, said Jake Morland, a spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in Kupang, West Timor’s capital.

Many of the 125 refugees who drowned were women and children, he said. About 90,000 East Timorese still are in western refugee camps. About 250,000 people fled when violence engulfed their half of the island in September.