Floods recede as victims cry for help<\/p>\n
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
The floods, which have paralyzed the city for the last three
\ndays, slowly started to recede on Thursday but remained an
\ninconvenience for many.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, many thousands of victims were in desperate need of
\nhelp.<\/p>\n
\"We see the floods are beginning to go down today. I hope
\nthey'll go down even further,\" Subroto, an official at the
\nPasanggrahan floodgate in South Jakarta, told The Jakarta Post on
\nThursday night.<\/p>\n
He said that the water level in the sluices had gone down from
\n255 centimeters on Wednesday to 165 centimeters on Thursday.
\nSeveral floodgates, including Katulampa in Bogor, and Manggarai
\nin South Jakarta, also witnessed receding water levels.<\/p>\n
Paulus Agus Winarno, an expert from the Meteorology and
\nGeophysics Agency, estimated that the rainfall had reached its
\npeak during the five consecutive days up to Wednesday. A
\ncumulative total of around 300 millimeters of rain fell on the
\ncity.<\/p>\n
But he warned the public that heavy rain could still occur
\nuntil the end of February.<\/p>\n
Over the last two days, the floodwaters reached up to six
\nmeters in depth in the most severely affected area in Cawang,
\nEast Jakarta.<\/p>\n
As of Thursday night, the floods were still disrupting daily
\nactivities and preventing thousands of people from leaving their
\nhomes.<\/p>\n
Commuters on trains on the Rangkas Bitung-Tanah Abang line had
\nto stop in Palmerah and continue their journey by other means of
\ntransportation as the Tanah Abang railway station in Central
\nJakarta had been inundated.<\/p>\n
A number of factories in Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta,
\nincluding the Mitsubishi plant, were closed because of the
\nfloods. \"Maybe we will open again next Monday,\" Ramot S. told the
\nPost.<\/p>\n
Many government offices had also yet to return to normal.
\n\"Today some 25 percent of our employees are absent as they have
\nto clean up their homes,\" said Sophia, a public servant with the
\ncity administration.<\/p>\n
Although the floodwaters had receded from the Kebon Jeruk and
\nJagorawi toll roads, the toll road leading to Soekarno Hatta
\nairport was still flooded up to a depth of one meter. Some cars
\nwere left stranded.<\/p>\n
As the toll road was impassable, motorists had to seek
\nalternative routes via Jl. Daan Mogot or Kapuk Kamal. Congestion
\non these roads was heavy, with the result that many intending
\npassengers failed to get to the airport on time. \"As a result,
\nsome 80 percent of flights were delayed,\" an airport official
\ntold the Post.<\/p>\n
Iin Mumkin, an official with the city's education agency, said
\nthat some 170 elementary and junior high school buildings were
\nstill inundated, causing classes to be suspended.<\/p>\n
The floods also damaged the telecommunications network with a
\ntotal of 17,100 telephone lines in the Greater Jakarta suffering
\ndisruption.<\/p>\n
As of Thursday, PLN had cut the electricity supply to 600
\nrelay stations in the flood-affected areas, up from only 400 on
\nWednesday.<\/p>\n
The floods have so far caused at least 17 deaths. Five persons
\nwere also missing, presumed washed away by the raging floodwaters
\nin several areas.<\/p>\n
Raya Siahaan, a secretary in the city's Center for Social
\nDisturbance Control, said the floods had affected at least
\n365,450 people, or 93,387 families, across the capital.<\/p>\n
Of the affected people, some 195,000 were taking refuge in
\nschool buildings, subdistrict offices and mosques, and even a
\npublic cemetery in the case of about 1,000 residents of Cipinang,
\nEast Jakarta.<\/p>\n
Most of the victims are in urgent need of assistance, but
\nseemingly little has been done to ease their sufferings. Worse
\nstill, the assistance provided was often inappropriate or even
\nlife-threatening.<\/p>\n
Rice was distributed to many victims who were unable to cook
\nit as their homes had been inundated.<\/p>\n
Among the medicines distributed to the victims were at least
\nten large boxes of medicine that were due to pass their use-by
\ndates in a matter of days.<\/p>\n
Dr. Aryono Pusponegoro of the Ciptomangunkusumo Hospital
\n(RSCM) admitted that the Doxycycline 100 milligram antibiotics,
\naid from Japan, which was distributed to victims, should have
\nbeen destroyed this month. But he said that the medicine was
\nstill safe to be used for up to six months after its expiry date.<\/p>\n
\"I think you shouldn't report this as we have worked hard to
\nrelease the medicine from storage. We need it for the flood
\nvictims,\" he said.<\/p>\n
President Megawati Soekarnoputri and a number of officials
\n have visited the flood locations, but only some of them brought
\nreal assistance to the victims.<\/p>\n
Megawati herself was welcomed by demonstrators when she
\nvisited the flooded Jl. Arus area in Cawang, East Jakarta, where
\nthe water reached up to six meters deep. Banners erected by
\nresidents read, among other things, \"We don't need visits, we
\nneed food\" and \"We are flooded with water while officials are
\nflooded with money\".<\/p>\n
Megawati toured the area in a rubber dingy.<\/p>\n
Accompanied by Governor Sutiyoso, the President then visited
\nJl. Cipinang Pulau Maja, also in East Jakarta.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, public health officer Dr. Kusdiyanto at the Flood
\nMonitoring Post admitted it was difficult for health officials to
\nprovide aid to the flood victims due to the limited number of
\nrubber rafts available to evacuate them.<\/p>",
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