One dead as floods hit towns in Java

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Floods triggered by two days of heavy rains have swept through several cities across Java since Tuesday, leaving at least one person dead and thousands of others homeless.

The towns most affected by the relentless flooding included Subang and Karawang in West Java, Semarang in Central Java, and Mojokerto in East Java.

The only known fatality was a woman identified as Nasiroh, a 61-year-old resident of the Panggung Lor area in North Semarang subdistrict, the area worst hit by the floodwaters that were as much as three meters deep.

Local residents said Nasiroh died at a local polyclinic after being found floating inside her submerged home at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

It is believed that one of the biggest factors in Nasiroh's death was fatigue, after she had apparently overexerted herself in a vain attempt to move her electronic equipment and other belongings to the second floor of her home.

The floods began after the two Kaligarang and Banjirkanal rivers in Semarang burst their banks following two days of rains in the Ungaran and Gunung Pati areas, about 30 kilometers west from the city.

The mountainous villages of Ungaran and Gunung Pati have long been residential areas.

Agus Budiman, a local Semarang resident, said that floodwaters would likely subside in at least three days because drainage pumps installed in the Kaligarang river were not working properly.

The flooding also submerged the Sampangan and Gedung Batu areas, which are located near the river where the level of water measured at 150 centimeters deep on Tuesday night.

It was far from clear what the final tally will be in material damages and financial losses suffered by the thousands of villagers unlucky enough to be affected by the disaster.

Pribadi, head of the disaster prevention and alertness division at the Semarang administration, said his office has been focusing on safeguarding victims.

He said that at least 1,000 people from Mangkang Barat, one of the hardest-hit villages, had taken refuge under three giant makeshift tents made available through the local administration.

The victims comprised of 200 families which had been evacuated by search and rescue teams aboard rubber canoes on Tuesday.

It was the second largest flooding to hit Semarang in the last decade, Pribadi said, lamenting the malfunction of the 12 drainage pumps installed at several corners of Semarang.

The flood also inflicted damage on a number of industrial parks in the Kaligawe residential area in the eastern part of Semarang, where water was 100 centimeters deep.

In the western part of the city, the flood led to at least three kilometers of traffic jams in Gunung Batu, Tanah Mas and Mangkang Barat.

In Subang, floods submerged around 400 houses in Mulyasari village, with water measuring a half-meter deep as the result of overflowing in the Cigadung river.

Cecep Rakhmat, a deputy head of the Pamanukan subdistrict, told Antara that at least 127 hectares of rice farms in Sukamaju village were inundated with water after the Batanggede river swelled.

The floods were worsened by construction that had been taking place in water channels whose presence, he said, seemed to have been ignored by local authorities.

"The channels have been planted with rice after they turned out to be shallow. Renovating or excavating the channels is the responsibility of the local waterworks office," said Sodik, a 49- year old farmer at Tegaluruk village in Legonkulon subdistrict.

In the rice production center of Karawang, floods submerged more than 3,100 hectares of rice fields in three subdistricts of Cibuaya, Batujaya and Pakisjaya, threatening a failed harvest there.

In the East Java city of Mojokerto, meanwhile, hundreds of villagers in Pungging subdistrict were forced to flee their homes on Wednesday, taking refuge at local hall buildings and neighbors' homes. Others moved to other safer areas.

Sutrisno, a policeman in Pungging, said the floods began shortly after the heavy downpours Tuesday night.

He said that, in an effort to avoid a traffic jams along the Krian-Mojosari route, police have prohibited trucks from traveling the roads, while making exceptions for minivans, and other small-sized vehicles.

Police officials have urged flood victims not to erect temporary tents along the side of the street, so as not to disrupt the flow of traffic.

Rescue workers and residents were also making efforts to rebuild embankments in several villages, which had collapsed under the weight of the heavy rains.