Caught in the flood, the most horrifying time of people's lives

Rendi A. Witular, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Jan. 21, 2002, will be the date Suminem will never forget. It was when her family was in danger of being swept away to their deaths, trapped in the middle of strong-flowing flood waters three-meters deep.

Suminem, her husband, her three children, and her two sisters had to spend three days and two nights without food or water on the roofs of houses while the heavy rain soaked and chilled them to the bone.

"We were trapped in the middle of the floods without food and drinking water, and during the night we could not sleep as the rain fell on us," the tearful Suminem told The Jakarta Post in her evacuees camp on Thursday.

Suminem lived in a remote and narrow alley of Bukit Duri subdistrict, South Jakarta. On Monday morning at around 6 a.m. her house was flooded with water 20-centimeters deep.

At that time, Suminem's family, who earned a living from vending bakso and herbs, were busy moving their belongings to a higher part of the house. They did not realize that the water was getting higher and higher.

They thought that the flood would only last for a moment as they experienced a year ago.

The disaster came at 2 p.m. as the water rose significantly higher, followed by a strong current. The floodwater reached some 1.5-meters high.

The family was scared as all of them could not swim. Supriadi, Suminem's husband, then decided to take the family up on to the roof to escape the waters.

After all the family had managed to climb up to the roof, they sighed in relief, but only for a moment, as the roof nearly collapsed.

They then jumped to a neighbor's roof, which fortunately was stronger than their own.

Suminem could see several of her neighbors who were also trapped in their houses waiting for a rescue team to arrive.

However, her neighbors were luckier as they were trapped on the second floor of two-story houses instead of a roof.

On Tuesday morning the rescue team arrived with three rubber boats. Suminem's family shouted as loud as they could to attract them. But the location was far from the main road and not easy to reach.

The first people saved by the team were those who lived along the main road.

"We shouted until our throats hurt, the rescue boat did see us. But they put us as the last victims to be helped. It's terrible to wait on the roof, we could not even sit properly, we squatted nearly all the time," said Suminem.

With their last strength, the family decided to jump from one roof to another, to get closer to the main road. They then built a "bridge" from floating debris to get them to the rescue boat.

At last, the family was evacuated around 6 p.m. on Wednesday.

"I was crying when the rescue team came to save us. I hugged them strongly, afraid to be left alone again", recalled Suminem.

Suminem was then brought to the Attahiriyah Muslim University, South Jakarta, to take shelter. They received aspirins, blankets, and a mattress to sleep on.

There were many other victims who also experienced some of the most horrifying moments of their lives. Aminah, another resident of Bukit Duri subdistrict shared the same nightmare.

Her family, comprising her husband and her two children, aged 7 and 14, had to break through their own roof at around 2 p.m. on Monday as water inundated their homes.

From the roof, they shouted to other residents for a lifebuoy, which was a worn-out inner tire. With the lifebuoy, they then swam towards the main street to get easy access to the rescue team.

"We were swimming in cold water waiting for them to pick us up. We were desperate in the circumstances. We keep praying and praying to God so that we could be saved at once," said Aminah.

Aminah's family was luckier than Suminen as on Wednesday at 12 a.m. they were rescued.