Two foreigners were buried under the rubble of a villa they had rented near the Jatiluwih rice terraces in Tabanan. The tragedy occurred Thursday morning.
47-year-old Angelina Smith from Australia and her 51-year-old boyfriend Cross Lucano from the Netherlands arrived at the house the night before. The couple had been living in Sanur, for a long time. Also staying with them were two sons of the Dutchman.
On Wednesday, Mr. Cross posted a series of photos on social media showing the villa, located amidst dense jungles and rice terraces, with the caption: "Ancient paradise."
Villa Yeh Baat was built in 2021 and had 5 rooms. The deceased couple had rented the northernmost room on the villa, called the Japan room.
Around 4 a.m. due to the bad weather and irrigation canals collapsing in the area, which passed near the house at a height of 30 meters, the landslide struck the villa. Its width reached 15 meters, and due to the enormous mass, two rooms were completely destroyed.
Apparently, according to forensic experts, the victims of the natural disaster died in their sleep from suffocation. When clearing the debris, they were found in bed, covered with blankets. There were no injuries found on the bodies of the man and the woman, only bruises.
The Executive Director of the Tabanan Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD), I Nyoman Sri Nadha Giri, said that his staff received the report of the incident on Thursday around 7:30 in the morning. Following this, emergency services immediately arrived at the scene and began rescue operations. "We retrieved the bodies within one hour using manual tools," he said at the scene of the incident. According to Sri Nadha Giri, after the bodies were discovered, they were taken to the nearest hospital for identification. He confirmed that the landslide occurred due to an overflowing irrigation canal, which caused the ground to collapse onto the villa from a height of 30 meters. The Jatiluwih area itself suffered from bad weather the night before the incident: due to rain and strong winds, even the electricity was cut off there.
Meanwhile, the owner of the villa, Ni Nyoman Ayu Suratnasih, admitted that she was shocked by the tragedy. Furthermore, she revealed that they had advised Jessica and Cross to find alternative accommodation before checking in, as there was no electricity at the villa.
The couple decided to stay, warning that if the power did not come on by 9:00 PM, then they would look for other accommodation. Apparently, due to exhaustion, the guests fell asleep quickly, and the tragedy occurred in the middle of the night. "This incident did not occur because of construction work on our villa's premises, but because of the landslide that came from above. Despite the distance to the summit being 30 meters," said the owner of the house affected by the landslide. As a result of this incident, it was decided to temporarily close the Yeh Baat villa. In addition, a mekaru ceremony will be held (a special ceremony meant to restore the balance between nature and humans), and work will begin on the irrigation canal. Madé Rentin, the Executive Director of the Bali Provincial Disaster Management Agency (BPBD), said that from March 13-14, there were at least 19 incidents on Bali due to extremely heavy rains and gusty winds. Mostly these were fallen trees and landslides. In addition to the two foreigners, a 16-year-old Indonesian citizen was also a victim of the disaster, swept away by a stream of water. Authorities in Bali warn that the bad weather will persist on the island until Monday. Furthermore, heavy rains in Sumatra last week triggered landslides and floods, resulting in the deaths of 27 people.
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