Strong wind hits hundreds of houses in North Jakarta
Strong wind hits hundreds of houses in North Jakarta
JAKARTA (JP): Hundreds of houses in the Kalibaru and Cilincing
subdistricts of North Jakarta were damaged by a strong wind which
hit the coastal area on Wednesday afternoon.
No fatalities were reported but many of the houses in the
densely populated slum area lost their roofs, which were mostly
made of zinc, asbestos or clay.
"The strong wind even blew the roofs of all the houses in one
of the neighborhoods here. So far we have found two houses which
were totally destroyed," a Kalibaru subdistrict officer, Maryono,
told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.
Local authorities have not revealed the precise number of
houses damaged or the total amount of material losses.
However, Maryono said that the powerful wind, which hit at
2:30 p.m. during a rainstorm, damaged 145 houses and toppled an
electric pole and 23 trees in the Kalibaru subdistrict.
"The affected area covers a site of some 30 hectares," he
added.
Many of the residents said on Thursday that it was hard for
them to remember the wind because it hit so fast.
They recalled that they could only watch helplessly as their
roofs and other belongings were carried into the sky by the wind.
"I was totally shocked ... I saw the wind carrying the roofs
high up into the sky. I just quickly took the engine off of my
boat," Buyung, a local resident, told the state-run TVRI
television station.
Nirwan Tambunan, whose parent's house was slightly damaged,
said, "My relatives and neighbors heard a powerful clap of
thunder and saw a mass of black clouds in the sky speeding closer
and closer to the area."
The wind was like "a snake zigzagging across the sky", he
added.
Even a house located between two tall buildings was affected
by the strong wind, Tambunan said.
Blackout
According to residents, the area experienced a 24-hour
blackout and the telephones went down after the storm.
The head of the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency, Sri
Diharto, said that the Wednesday incident "was just an ordinary
strong wind".
"It's was a very local wind and had nothing to do with the La
Nina weather phenomenon," he said.
It was Diharto who earlier last month warned about the
possibility of Indonesia, including the capital, being hit by
localized small-scale storms in the near future.
The storms, he said, would result from larger tropical storms
which usually hit Australia in January and February every year.
"But we don't need to worry about it because the storms will
not be too powerful here. They usually only have a diameter of 10
to 50 meters and travel for five kilometers at the most," he
said.
By comparison, large storms can sweep over areas of between
100 kilometers and 500 kilometers, he added.
Similar winds as that experienced in North Jakarta was also
reported in Muara Enim, South Sumatra.
The strong wind, locally called Angin Sembilan, began pounding
the villages of Gunungagung, Pajar Bulan, Segamit and Cahaya Alam
on Monday, and so far had destroyed hundreds of houses, schools
and health clinics in the area.
As in North Jakarta, the wind mostly damaged the roofs of
buildings.
In Cilincing and Kalibaru, city authorities deployed scores of
soldiers and police to help residents clear the debris and
temporarily fix their roofs.
Donations of rice, instant noodles and money have been
distributed to affected residents. (ind/bsr)