Flood triggers gridlock

Flood triggers gridlock

SEMARANG, Central Java: Widespread flooding just west of here stopped traffic on the Semarang-Jakarta highway for six hours yesterday, forming an eight-kilometer queue of immobile vehicles.

In the Mangkang area, the water level on the road was as high as 70 centimeters, causing gridlock on an eight kilometer road between Semarang and Kendal, Antara reported.

The traffic jam lasted from 5 p.m. Thursday until 12.30 a.m. yesterday. Thousands of vehicles of all kinds moved at a snail's pace.

"I have been stuck here practically immobile for two hours," a truck driver, Suwondo, said.

The flooding also forced more than a dozen families in Mangkang to move to safer ground, Antara reported. (pan)