0 Jakarta Residents Flooded by Frustrations

For some residents of Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta, the rain didn’t wash away the pain: instead, it brought anywhere from 1.5 to 3 meters of floodwater that inundated their homes. Bakhtiar, a resident of Karet Tengsin, Tanah Abang, said that although there was water in his house since 3 a.m. on Thursday, until 8 a.m., it was only 45 centimeters deep. “I thought it would not go any higher. But all of a sudden at 9 o’clock, water flowed in heavily until it reached 2 meter,” Bakhtiar said. 

“Of course my family and I panicked because it all happened so fast. We didn’t have the chance to bring our electronic appliances and other goods to the top floor,” he added. As of Thursday evening, floodwaters have reached the roof of the house and his family has been evacuated to a safer place — an unused classroom in a nearby school building. “All of my family members have not been evacuated. Neither have all the residents. There are still others in their homes. 

Because they live in small alleyways, rafts cannot enter. We need a smaller inflatable boat,” Bakhtiar said. Karet Tengsin village Chief Hariadi said this year’s flood has been worse than the one that inundated the capital in 2002, which only reached 1.5 meters. However, Firdaus Ali, a water resources expert from the University of Indonesia, predicted that the comings days will bring worse floods than 2007 did. “On Jan. 26, 27 and 28, there will be a full moon [and] a rising of the tides on the beaches in the north of Jakarta. 

If the intensity of the rain in the city is still high, and the floods from Puncak and Bogor are factored in, then it is certain that parts of Jakarta will be drowned,” Firdaus stated. He added that while the downstream rain hasn’t been too extreme, floods from Puncak and Bogor have inundated around 25 percent of the city. “The situation at the moment has frustrated the residents. The main roads of the city are already blocked,” he said. “What we can do until February is only pray.” 

Meanwhile, on Jalan Sudirman, one of Jakarta’s main arteries, four people were trapped in a basement parking structure in the UOB Building, as reported by detik.com. Water flooded into the building’s basement and trapped two cleaning service officers and two technicians. The police, along with a search-and-rescue team, attempted to save the four people, but they were unsuccessful. Sharief Hassan, a staff member at a foreign embassy on Jalan Sudirman, told the Jakarta Globe that all embassy employees were evacuated at 9 a.m. on Thursday.  

Later in the day, he was told by the human resources department not to come to the office the next day if the situation hasn’t improved. “I will most likely work from home tomorrow, because chances are [the road] may still be flooded,” Sharief said.

source : the jakarta globe