Qualitative study of disaster preparedness in an Indonesian village: interviews with survivors of flash flooding near Bandung

Debris flows and flash floods pose a continuing hazard to Nyalindung, a village in a mountainous part of West Java. On 16 December 2013, three days of heavy rain and a partial breaching of a succession of landslide dams triggered a debris flow and flash flood. One person died, nine homes were damaged, and 53 residents were evacuated. We asked villagers who were directly affected by that disaster about their knowledge of the hazard, in the hope of developing adaptation strategies. The survey showed that the majority of the villagers first became aware of the hazard during the 2013 disaster. Practical solutions exclude relocation because the village has stood in flow paths for the past 70 years or more, and because the families residing there are attached to the land and each other. We recommend combining public education about existing hazards with early warning technology.