Flooding starts to hit parts of the city
Flooding starts to hit parts of the city
Tony Hotland, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Hours of torrential rain late on Monday and early Tuesday
inundated numerous parts of the capital, forcing dozens of
families to evacuate their homes.
The Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG) had earlier
forecast rain for late December, with the heaviest rainfall
forecast for January and February.
"It started flooding at around 3 a.m. and we began collecting
our belongings. I was afraid that my children would drown," said
Maryati, 39, on Tuesday as she moved her family onto the median
strip under the Wiyoto Wiyono elevated toll road at the
intersection of Jl. Letjen. Suprapto and Jl. Perintis
Kemerdekaan, East Jakarta.
Her plywood shanty in the vicinity of the nearby Pulo Mas
reservoir in Kayu Putih subdistrict was immersed in 75
centimeters of water.
Another evacuee, Nani, said that flooding was nothing new for
residents as it happened every year.
"We don't have money to repair our house, let alone find a new
one. It's already enough that we can buy food for ourselves each
day," the 32-year-old woman told The Jakarta Post.
Most of the residents there work as scavengers, street vendors
and buskers.
The flood also swamped Jl. Perintis Kemerdekaan with 35
centimeters of water, leaving one lane of the two-lane street
unusable for motorists. The road became severely congested since
vehicles from opposite directions were forced to use only one
lane.
In early 2002, the area was inundated by three meters of
water, destroying shanties there and forcing hundreds of
residents to evacuate.
The flooding forced employees of toll road operator PT Citra
Marga Nusaphala Persada, owned by former president Soeharto's
daughter Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana, to park their cars along the
toll road after the Sunter toll gate. The parked cars occupied
one lane of the two-lane toll road causing congestion.
Tuesday's floods also swamped other areas, such as Jl.
Kwitang, Jl. Cempaka Putih Barat and Kebon Kelapa Subdistrict,
all in Central Jakarta, with waters reaching around 60
centimeters to 80 centimeters.
In West Jakarta, one-meter high waters flooded the areas
around Grogol River.