Residents return to flood shelters
Residents return to flood shelters
Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Refugees who went home on Saturday were back in temporary
shelters on Sunday as their houses were again flooded after
authorities closed the flood gates to the Ciliwung River that
passes through the Presidential Palace.
In Balismester and Kampung Melayu, East Jakarta, waters
reached 150 centimeters and 10 centimeters respectively, while in
Pejaten Timor, South Jakarta, the water reached a depth of 1.75
meters.
"Many residents went home yesterday (Saturday), but they come
back here again today because their houses are inundated," said
Mulyadi, an official on duty at the Santa Maria School in Kampung
Pulo, Kampung Melayu, on Sunday.
Imam Budiono, a duty officer at the City Crisis Center, told
The Jakarta Post the sluice gate to the Kota area was closed on
Sunday morning.
An officer at the Manggarai sluice confirmed Imam's statement.
"The sluice opening had been raised to 40 centimeters since
Wednesday, but it was lowered to 20 centimeters on Sunday," he
said.
The canal passes through the palace and upmarket Menteng area
in Central Jakarta.
Meanwhile, water levels at the Manggarai flood gates continued
to rise on Sunday. At 7 p.m. the waters were recorded at 700
centimeters after earlier breaching the 7.1 meter high gate at 4
p.m., reaching a depth of 8.25 meters.
Kusharyanto, an officer on duty at the gate, said the rise
was caused by heavy rain in Bogor that morning.
An official at the Katulampa sluice said the weather in Bogor
and the surrounding area was now fine.
The latest flooding happened after residents of the Kampung
Pulo had returned to clean up their houses, which were earlier
submerged by two meters of water on Wednesday and Thursday.
"I was cleaning up my house when the water returned in the
morning," said Ahmad, a resident.
Kampung Melayu is the worst flood-affected area. Subdistrict
head Lutfi Kamal estimated more than 10,000 people were evacuated
on Wednesday and Thursday and about 1,200 had yet to return to
their homes on Sunday.
Refugees were given shelter in Santa Maria school; the local
SMP 26 junior high school, the Attawabin and Al-Hikmah mosques
and in a large number of tents.
Meanwhile, the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG) said
on Sunday that more heavy rain might affect the city and
surrounding areas during the next few days as the rainy season
had not yet reached its peak.
BMG public meteorology service chief Achmad Zakir said the
expected tropical storms that were likely to cause heavy rain in
Jakarta and surrounding areas had not occurred yet.
"Climatologists have estimated that there will be two tropical
storms in January. If such storms appear, heavy rains with
stronger intensity will deluge the city. Rainfall can continue
for up to five consecutive days," he told The Jakarta Post.
The heavy rain that occurred on Tuesday, Wednesday and
Thursday in Jakarta and its upper reaches -- Bogor, Puncak, and
Depok -- were not caused by tropical storms. Those rains were
just the start of the rainy season, he said.
The rain caused three meter deep flooding in several parts of
the city. The annual floods regularly forces tens of thousands of
residents, mostly in East Jakarta, to abandon their homes.
BMG has five classifications for cumulative monthly rainfall
-- very light for rainfall measuring 10 mm to 15 mm; light for 70
mm to 85 mm; medium, 250 mm to 295 mm; heavy, 400 mm to 545 mm;
and very heavy, 510 mm to 845 mm.
During the floods in early 2002, which inundated nearly one-
third of Jakarta's 660 square kilometers, the monthly rainfall
averaged 800 mm.