Meteorology agency sees heavy rains for February

Meteorology agency sees heavy rains for February

JAKARTA (JP): The Meteorology and Geophysics Agency has warned that heavy downpours will take place in Jakarta until February, and warned people to take proper precautions.

The agency head, Karjoto said in a press statements on Wednesday that Jakarta, West Java and the northern coastal areas in Java will suffer the most from the bad weather.

The rainfalls during January will be very high in West Java and Jakarta, Karjoto said, citing that rainfalls in Jakarta and Bogor in the period of Jan. 1 - Jan. 7 reached between 150 and 350 millimeters. The average rainfall is between 90 and 150 millimeter in these two areas, he added. "This means rainfalls in Jakarta and Bogor will above average."

Many parts of the capital were submerged during that period, and the biggest flood, said to be the worst in the last 20 years, hit the capital on Sunday, Jan. 7.

According to the agency observation, this abnormality happened due to the worldwide natural phenomenon ENSO (El Nino-Southern Oscillation).

Most families living in areas prone to flooding were not aware of the weather, which led to the serious flooding last week. Many of them said that warnings from the authorities were not given prior to the disaster.

However, an official of the city public order office, R. Sitindjak, denied residents' claims, saying that people living on the Ciliwung riverbanks had been told to leave hours before the water inundated the areas.

Sitindjak of the public protection unit at the city public order office, said yesterday that at 8 a.m. on Saturday when a flood gate in Depok showed that the water level was starting to rise his office told the residents to start packing their belongings and leave their homes quickly.

Data provided by the office stated that the water level at Depok floodgate on Saturday reached 4.35 meters by 3 p.m. and, four hours later the flow of the Ciliwung river water was about 500 cubic meter per second.

"However, the residents didn't pay any attention. Many of them refused to leave because they thought that the water will climb higher than 50 centimeters," Sitindjak said.

In the most devastated areas like Kalibata and Bidara Cina water levels reached more than five meters in height on Sunday.

Sitindjak said big losses could have been avoided if the residents had listened to the warnings.

"The residents are familiar with floods. Maybe they see the flood as an annual event which should not be feared," Sitindjak said. (yns/sur)