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)