THE night was still young when the disaster struck. It was 2am on Monday last week and Edi Rohaedi, a resident of Kampung Cilimus in the West Java district of Leuwigajah, was fast asleep. The rain which had been falling since Sunday evening pushed him deeper into the warm embrace of the blanket.

Suddenly the earth moved. The still of the night was broken by repeated cries of “longsor!” (landslide!) as residents rushed out of their ho