Flooding continues up and down Sumatra

Flooding continues up and down Sumatra

The Jakarta Post, Bandarlampung/Langkat/Palembang

Kaminem rushed out of bed after hearing an alarm to warn
residents in Kebun Sayur district in Langkat regency of the
coming flood.

The alarm went off at about 3 a.m. Wednesday morning and the
38-year-old widow, who lives alone, packed as many belongings as
possible and hurriedly left her house.

Outside, near a bridge in Barang Serangan River connecting
Sawit Seberang and Padang Tualang districts, hundreds of
residents had gathered.

"Water in my house is still 1.5 meters high and many of my
belongings are still there, immersed in the floodwater," Kaminem
told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

The flood in parts of Langkat regency, about 80 km northeast
of Medan, had swamped two districts and several villages on
Tuesday and expanded to three more districts -- Sawit Seberang,
Padang Tualang and Batang Serangan -- on Wednesday, forcing about
10,000 residents to flee to safety.

Floodwaters as has high as 2.5 meters left some residents from
Pajak Batang Serangan stranded with no means to get out of the
area.

Such flooding, according to one resident had not occurred for
nearly four decades. "This big a flood and was completely
unpredictable," said Ega Warno, a 58-year-old Sawit Seberang
resident, while recalling that there was a similar one 38 years
ago.

Secretary of Sawit Seberang district, Saifullah, said that for
the next few days, schools in the area would be closed.

Heavy downpours in other parts of the country have also forced
students to miss school, while many vehicles have had to find
alternative routes to get around the flooding.

Floodwaters over 1.5 meters high forced students from several
elementary schools in Muara Kuang and Rantawalai districts in
Ogan Ilir Regency in Palembang to stay home.

Since Tuesday morning, 19 of 27 elementary schools in Muara
Kuang had been shut, while it has been a week since some schools
in Rantawalai were open.

"Because of this flooding, we can't possibly teach," said
Jumiati, a teacher in SD Kuang Dalam elementary school from her
home.

She said that when the water began rising last week, she and
other teachers tried to save some school equipment, including
textbooks, "but we could only save some of them, maybe 60 percent
of the textbooks were damaged."

Head of Muara Kuang district, Wilson, confirmed that some
elementary schools in his area had shut.

"We've tried to find alternative places for the students and
teachers but since most of the area here is flooded, it's hard to
find a good place. Even the village office is inundated," Wilson
said.

Ogan Ilir Regent Indra Rusdi said on Wednesday that 16
villages in his regency were flooded. "The number of refugees at
this time has reached 1,555 people," he said.

Some of the Muara Kuang residents could stay in their homes,
because their houses are on stilts two or three meters off the
ground.

"The water did not enter our house although the water level is
up to two meters just beneath our floor, but it's hard for us to
get clean drinking water," said Hijir, a 33-year-old resident of
Kuang Dalam, who added that he and his family would remain at
home.

In Bandarlampung, road connecting Tulangbawang regency to
Pematang Panggang in Ogan Komering Ilir regency was still
inundated by floods nearly a meter high, forcing state-owned
highway company Bina Marga to close the Sumatran eastern highway.
All vehicles were shifted to a smaller road that connects
Kotabumi in Lampung-Bengkulu.

Head of Bina Marga's office in Lampung, Taufik Hidayat, said
that flooding and possible landslides had rendered all but the
Kotabumi-Bengkulu route impassable.

"The western highway, although it has been repaired, it's
still prone to landslides during rainy seasons, while the eastern
highway, some of its points are still inundated by water," Taufik
said.

The flood has also immersed over a thousand hectares of rice
fields in Seputih Surabaya district in Lampung Tengah regency, up
to two meters high. The water level is predicted to rise further,
following damage to dikes in three locations.

Seputih Surabaya district head Royadi said on Wednesday that
the floodwater had covered 1,284 hectares of rice fields, 136,75
hectares of plantations and 13 houses in three villages.

As of Wednesday around noon, some 3,000 residents of
Tulangbawang regency had fled their homes.