Indonesia on high alert as heavy rains and flood death toll climbs
Pastor Dale Morgan
Indonesia on high alert as heavy rains and flood death toll climbs*
JAKARTA, Feb 4 (AFP) Feb 04, 2007
Rescuers and volunteers on Sunday struggled to reach nearly 210,000
Indonesians left homeless by devastating floods triggered by heavy rains
in and around Jakarta, as the death toll rose to over 20.
With more rain forecast, authorities put the capital on high alert and
police deployed 12,600 extra personnel equipped with helicopters,
inflatable boats and rafts to assist with evacuation efforts across the
city.
Water levels reached rooftops in some areas as rivers and canals that
criss-cross the city burst their banks following days of torrential
downpours.
"The number of our personnel is enough, but what we are lacking are
rubber boats for the evacuation of residents," said Jakarta police
spokesman Untung Yoga Ana.
Ana said the floods in the capital and surrounding area had left at
least 20 people dead and one missing.
"The victims died because of disease, cold, electrocution or were swept
away by the floods," Ana told the state Antara news agency.
At least 122 areas were seriously flooded in the city of 10 million
people and the surrounding towns of Tanggerang Depok and Bekasi, he said.
The National Disaster Mitigation Coordinating Agency, also quoted by
Antara, said the number of refugees forced to leave their homes due to
the rainy-season floods was now at nearly 210,,000, up from 106,095
registered as of early Saturday.
Local television stations showed footage of inundated areas around the
capital, mainly along the Ciliwung, Pesangrahan and Krukut rivers, with
people being evacuated from their roofs or the second floors of their homes.
Helicopters dropped supplies to people stranded in the north of the city.
A key flood gate in East Jakarta could no longer block water flowing in
from outside the city, staff there said, causing the city's main canal
to burst its banks.
There was no immediate estimate of the number of families who needed to
be evacuated.
Members of the Indonesian Red Cross and other volunteers were delivering
food to the thousands of people stranded in their flooded homes or
sheltering on roadsides.
Mosques, schools and other public buildings in dry areas across the city
were being used as makeshift shelters for the homeless, television
reports showed.
The floods have forced the closure of several main roads across Jakarta,
while at least two hospitals had to move patients to upper floors.
Power and fresh water supplies were cut to many inundated areas, adding
to the misery of people who opted to stay in their flooded homes. At
least 5,000 people were without telephone service.
"This weather pattern will continue until at least the end of February,"
said Edison Gurning of the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency.
With rain continuing to fall in water catchment areas south of the city,
Gurning said the floods could spread even further.
Residents of Kelapa Gading in North Jakarta -- a vast residential and
commercial area inundated in 2002 by floods that killed 40 people --
said the latest disaster was far worse.
"Last time, the water was only knee deep but yesterday, it had already
reached my midriff when I left," said 48-year-old Brahmanta, who managed
to leave his two-storey house with his car when water levels were still low.
"I could stay on the second floor of the house, but there is no food, no
electricity, no clean water, and the toilets cannot flush," Brahmanta said.
Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar has blamed the floods on excessive
construction on natural drainage areas, Antara reported.
"There are too many malls in the capital city," he said at the weekend.
The minister said many developers had not paid enough attention to the
ecological impact of their construction projects.
Old Batavia, the former colonial port under the Dutch from where Jakarta
has expanded, was built on marshland and some areas of the capital are
below sea level.