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.