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.