Jakarta comes to soggy standstill

Jakarta comes to soggy standstill

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

As the waters continued to rise in Jakarta on Saturday so did
the death toll and the anger of the people.

The huge floods left hundreds of thousands of people homeless,
stranded in houses or sheltering in evacuee accommodation or
worse -- on the streets. People were distressed, desperate,
frustrated and angry.

Many houses were submerged, roads inundated and closed,
valuables damaged, shops closed, flights delayed and weddings
canceled.

The death toll has risen by nine with a total of 30 confirmed
dead and another two missing as of Saturday night.

The state-electricity company PLN has cut power in many areas,
many telephone line are disrupted, and the supply of food and
fuel was affected.

The city was paralyzed as the floodwater affected more and
more areas, including the main thoroughfares of Jl. Thamrin and
Jl. Sudirman, as well as upmarket Menteng in Central Jakarta.

A number of government and private offices, hospitals, police
dorms, schools, post offices, a railway station, traditional
markets as well as many other public places were inundated.

Daily Media Indonesia, whose office is in flood-hit Kebun
Jeruk, West Jakarta, did not publish an edition on Saturday.

Water flooded the Cikini hospital in Menteng on Friday
morning, and also the Islamic hospital in Cempaka Putih, Central
Jakarta. "Patients in the VIP pavilion should be evacuated
because the depth of water is 50 centimeters," a visitor said.

All shops on Jl. Sabang, Central Jakarta, were closed as the
water levels neared two meters.

Along Jl. Jatinegara Barat, East Jakarta, most shops were also
closed as the floodwaters reached one-meter high.

Paula Naftali, a shop owner, closed her shop in fear that
desperate flood victims might turn violent. "I'm afraid of a
similar chaotic situation like in 1998," she said, referring to
the anti-Chinese riots.

Police, who claim to have deployed 17,000 officers in the
city, have been given orders to shoot on sight to avoid disorder.

State oil and gas company Pertamina said that fuel supply for
Greater Jakarta was down by 20 percent, as fuel trucks were
unable to reach several areas in the capital.

Awi Adil, a spokesman at Pertamina, said many of Jakarta's 380
gas stations were inundated.

Also hit by the floods was the Plumpang fuel depot, through
which the Balongan refinery in West Java supplies fuel to
Jakarta. Awi said water levels at Plumpang had reached one meter.

If the situation at Plumpang worsens, he added, Pertamina
would transport the fuel straight from Balongan, assuming however
the route to Jakarta remained flood free.

State electricity company PT PLN said it had shut off power at
more than 1,200 power switches, to avoid electrocution in flooded
areas.

This might leave some 360,000 households without electricity,
said Margo Santoso, PLN general manager in charge of power
distribution in Jakarta and Tangerang.

The state telecommunications company had announced earlier
that at least 17,100 telephone lines were disrupted.

Air transportation was also affected by the floods.

An official of the Soekarno Hatta International airport Tri
Nugroho, said that international flights were run without
disruption. But at least 11 domestic flight were delayed between
30 minutes to one hour. Four flights -- two to Pontianak, one to
Surabaya and Medan -- were canceled.

The flights were delayed or canceled because many passengers
failed to show up as the main road to the airport from Pluit,
North Jakarta, was still flooded.

Due to the floods, severe traffic jams occurred on many
streets, including Jl. Daan Mogot, Jl. Kebun Jeruk, Jl. Hayam
Wuruk, Jl. Suprapto and several toll roads heading to several
satellite towns around the city.

Traffic violations were tolerated. Motorcycles, which were
usually forbidden to enter Jl. Sudirman, were seen passing the
road. They also used the toll road.

There was a long queue of vehicles queuing to enter the
Tangerang toll road, which was inundated by the water from the
Pesanggrahan river.

Truck drivers voluntarily gave lifts to pedestrians, who
crossed the water, to Serpong and Karawaci. Each passenger gave
the drivers Rp 5,000 (48 U.S. cents) for the service.

Drivers of small cars, who got stuck in the water, had to pay
Rp 20,000 to each person who helped push their car through the
floodwater.

Saturday morning's queue was shorter than Friday nights, when
vehicles at the Cawang intersection stretched for 14 kilometers.

Many drivers had to spend the night in their vehicles.

Almost half of public buses did not operate because they did
not want to become trapped.

Taxis were not easy to get as several taxi premises were
flooded. Staff at Blue Bird said that it only operated 163 of its
266 cars.

Alternatively, people could use motorcycle taxis (ojek) or
bicycle taxis. Some people offered their services to deliver
people short distance using a cart (gerobak).

Even President Megawati Soekarnoputri had to take a ride in a
garbage truck during her unscheduled trip to visit flood victims
in Jati Baru, Central Jakarta.

After canceling her planned trip to Bali, Megawati,
accompanied by Governor Sutiyoso, also visited the Plumpang
gasoline depot and flood victims in nearby Rawa Badak, where she
tasted the food provided by the Indonesian Red Cross for the
victims.

Despite the worst flooding in Jakarta's history, the lights
were still on and the music was still loud at the city's
nightspots in Glodok, West Jakarta, on Friday night.