Flooding swamps Tangerang

Flooding swamps Tangerang

The Jakarta Post, Tangerang/Jakarta

More than 2,000 homes in Tangerang are under water on Tuesday,
with rain continuing to pour down throughout the Greater Jakarta
area.

The worst-hit areas, inundated by floodwaters two meters high,
were located in Tanjung Burung, in the Teluk Naga district, near
the Cisadane River.

But residents remain reluctant to leave their houses.

"The water slowly rose to one meter high on Sunday ... we
stayed on because we expected it to recede quickly. Even now,
many residents prefer to stay on their roofs," Unel, a resident
who decided to leave her home, told The Jakarta Post.

Teluk Naga district head, Didi S. Wijaya, said that two
families had been left homeless after their houses collapsed as a
result of the floods.

Heavy downpours, compounded by a high tide, caused the river
to overflow.

"The only way to deal with flooding here is to build a 1,000
meter embankment along the river and to dredge mud from the
river," he remarked.

Floods have also disrupted at least 40 scheduled commuter
trains traveling to Kota station, West Jakarta, on Tuesday, with
railway tracks submerged in ankle-deep water.

Consequently, trains traveling from Tangerang, Bekasi, and
Serpong could not reach their final destinations and had to stop
at unaffected stations, said Akhmad Sujadi, spokesman for the
Jakarta division of state railway operator PT KAI.

"There are electronic components that move the wheels that are
located underneath the train, so it is dangerous to run through
water above 10 centimeters," Sujadi was quoted as saying by
Antara.

Normally, there are 326 scheduled electric trains catering to
450,000 passengers running every working day. About 40 percent of
passengers travel on the Bekasi-Jakarta, Tangerang-Jakarta, and
Serpong-Jakarta routes.

Trains from Bogor and Depok were not affected as they traveled
on other lines.

Meanwhile, water levels in several villages in the Bekasi
regency remained high on Tuesday. In the three villages of the
Muara Gembong district -- Jaya Sakti, Pantai Harapan Jaya, and
Lenggah Sari -- floodwater reached two meters high.

According to Bambang, a volunteer who helped evacuees, there
were some 1,400 families affected by the floods in the three
subdistricts.

Some 20 families took refuge at the local mosque.

"Most of them prefer to stay with their houses," he was quoted
as saying by detik.com news portal.

In the neighboring Cabangbungin district, 600 families were
affected by the flood up to Tuesday, but none had left their
houses.

In the capital, water continued to recede, enabling the city
administration to further downgrade its flood alert status.

Many flood evacuees have begun returning home to clean up
their houses.

"But we're staying on alert because thick clouds continue to
hang above the city," said one evacuee.