Death toll up as rains come down
Death toll up as rains come down
JAKARTA (JP): Six more bodies were fished out of city rivers,
bringing the death toll to 13.
It was officially announced yesterday that the six bodies were
those of a police officer, 2nd Sergeant Bambang Hartono, 25,
Sugiono, a 23-year-old student, Dahlan, a 47-year-old driver, 30-
year-old Supeno, an employee at a private company, Juli, a 14-
year-old rice vendor, and Komaruddin, a resident of Tambora, West
Jakarta.
Bambang's body was found in the Pesanggrahan river near the
Policewomen Academy in Ciputat, South Jakarta, while Sugiono was
found in Cikampek, East of Jakarta. Dahlan and Supeno were found
respectively on Jl. Indokarya and Kelapa Gading in North Jakarta,
while Komaruddin's body was found in West Jakarta.
The other six victims were found on Sunday. Another victim,
Sukino of Tambora, West Jakarta, has not yet been found.
City Police Spokesman Lt.Col.Iman Haryatna said yesterday the
police were still investigating reports that 10 other people had
drowned.
The weekend floods also damaged the homes of half a million
Jakartans, and disrupted hundreds of thousands of telephone
lines.
Governor Surjadi Soedirdja said the flood inundated 139 of 265
subdistricts, and flooded homes housing 134,354 families or
566,542 people.
West Jakarta was the worst hit with 96,340 families whose
houses were damaged.
Several areas were still submerged yesterday as rains fell
again in some parts of the capital city.
Surjadi said the first stage of the city's rehabilitation
was to repair the banks of the 13 rivers affected.
The chief of forecasting services at the Meteorological and
Geophysical Agency said that rains would continue until the end
of this month.
According to Paulus, the rainfall levels ranged from 100 to
300 millimeters in Jakarta this month, with South Jakarta
experiencing the most rainfall.
He said the Agency had already warned all relevant government
bodies. He said more rains should be expected along the North
Java coast, Sumatra, Bali, Sulawesi and West and East Nusa
Tenggara.
Chaotic traffic
City traffic was also still chaotic due to the flooded
streets, such as Jl. D.I. Panjaitan and Jl. Ahmad Yani in East
Jakarta and Jl. Yos Sudarso, North Jakarta.
Yesterday afternoon the underpass under the Dukuh Atas bridge
of Jl. Sudirman was still submerged by two meters of water.
Abandoned cars are a common sights in some areas.
Motorists complained of having to travel twice the normal time
to reach work while others stayed home.
The traffic congestions were worsened by traffic lights which
were either deliberately turned off or damaged by the floods.
The state-owned electric company PLN turned off 15 traffic
lights, after having closed down 96 on Sunday night.
Several domestic and international flights were either
canceled or delayed.
One businessman bought a ticket back to Medan, when he found
he could not leave Soekarno-Hatta airport. A visitor from
Singapore, David Chew, said he spent two hours from the airport
to the Mandarin Hotel in Central Jakarta through Kalideres, as
the Jl. Sedyatmo toll road was impassable.
The floods have also affected the gas supply. The central gas
station of the Pertamina state-owned oil company in Plumpang,
North Jakarta was flooded and held up delivery.
A liquid gas (Elpiji) agent said supplies stopped as of Sunday
from his supplier in Jembatan Lima, West Jakarta.
Meanwhile, the lone telephone at the Flood Information Center
of the city public works agency has been ringing off the hook
since Saturday.
Employees there said that warnings are being publicised at
mayoralty offices. Governor Surjadi Soedirdja said people
routinely ignore these warnings.
The latest data from a number of flood control points from the
Center showed the water level is still high.
Only Depok showed a level of 130 centimeters while in
Manggarai, South Jakarta, the figure was still 770.
In Pluit, North Jakarta, residents who were still belly-high
in water, blamed the developer, PT Jawa Barat Indah because their
area turned out to be lower than the Pluit dam.
Refugees in Kayu Putih and Kelapa Gading said they had not
received any help, while children showed early signs of diarrhea
and vomiting.
An operator said there was a chance that two generator-powered
pumps the underpass could cleared the water out by late evening.
"Provided it doesn't rain," he qualified his judgment
sagaciously.
Two smaller automatic pumps could not function as they were
themselves under water.
The director of PT Telkom, the state-owned telecommunications
company, Setyanto P. Santosa, said if the rains stop, the 100,000
telephone lines which have been taken out by the rains will be
back to normal in two weeks.
He said losses might be estimated at Rp 9 billion so far.
Telephone numbers beginning with 51, 52 and 25 were still cut
off to prevent further damage to telecommunication facilities on
Jl. Gatot Subroto near the overflowing Krukut river.
34,000 more telephone lines in North Jakarta may still be
disrupted due to the high water level. (team)
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