Lecturer drowns in flood

JAKARTA (JP): South Jakarta marine officers fished the drowned body of a female law lecturer at the private Pancasila University from the Grogol river which flows by the Pondok Indah golf course.

The body, identified as Musmarini Wiati, 58, was found about 200 meters from where the victim's Toyota Corona silver sedan was submerged in a sudden flood near a bridge opposite the Wisma Arum Manis housing complex in Lebak Bulus, South Jakarta.

While the driver, Solihin, survived, officers of the Police Mobile Brigade (Brimob), and marine frogmen searched the waters up to the Pondok Indah area for Musmarini's cousin, Siti Hadiastuti, 54, who was with the victim in the car, the Cilandak Police chief said on Wednesday.

"The three were heading for Musmarini's home on Jl. Borobudur No. 4 in Central Jakarta from a cousin's house in Cinere, whose husband had just died at Harum hospital in Kalimalang, East Jakarta.

"They started from Cinere at about 4:15 a.m. On the way home, Hadiastuti told Solihin to go straight, until they reached the Arum Manis bridge. But they got stuck near the bridge as the car broke down and water just kept flowing into the car. Musmarini told Solihin to push the car forward," Maj. Nurhayati told The Jakarta Post at the scene where the body was taken from the river.

"He tried very hard to push, but failed."

Nurhayati said a Filipino lady, identified as Helen Kamaguchi, living on the third floor of the Pondok Club Villa Apartments with her Japanese husband, heard screams for help.

"Helen saw the victim clinging to the branches of some nearby trees until the person's hands gave way and she was swept into the water. Helen was unable to leave the apartment because of its fenced gates. She is in shock and can hardly say much."

At the Cilandak Police subprecinct, Solihin said he had been unable to get the car to start as the water was coming in fast.

"Ibu (Musmarini) told me to get behind the car and push it, while she would take the wheel. I got down and tried ... I thought I was stronger, but I was not. I tried to hold the car down, but instead I was pulled along with it as it began to float. I felt myself drowning ... the waters reached my chest. Ibu Musmarini and Hadiastuti were still in the car. I let go of the car and swam until my hands found the road." Solihin told the Post.

Solihin ran to the nearby Parama Apartments in Lebak Bulus and dragged the security guard to the bridge.

"When I returned, I saw that the water risen and there was no car. I went the other way and ran toward the Cilandak Police station."

Hours later, at about 7 a.m., an unidentified driver of an official minivan of the Customs and Excise carrying customs and excise employees, defiantly passed through the flooded area despite warnings from police officers who arrived to secure the area.

The water reached the windows of the minivan and frogmen had to rescue the passengers. The driver ran from the scene.

Heavy rain on Tuesday night also flooded the areas of Petamburan, Tanah Abang, Serdang and Kemayoran in Central Jakarta, said Agus, an official of the flood monitoring unit at the Central Jakarta administration.

"The water level reached 20 to 30 centimeters," Agus said.

The water level of the Ciliwung river, dubbed the longest in West Java with its length of 117 kilometers, reportedly reached 70 centimeters on Wednesday.

The head of Dramaga Climatology office in Bogor, Widodo, said the western and southern part of the country would likely experience heavy downpours during the next few days.

"It's due to low air pressure which blows from the southern part of Java to the west," Widodo said. (asa/24/edt/06/ylt)