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.