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Jakartans should brace for strong winds: BMKG

As the rainy season approaches the city, Jakartans should brace for strong winds especially during the transitional period, says the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG)

Indah Setiawati (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Mon, November 23, 2009

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Jakartans should brace for strong winds: BMKG

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s the rainy season approaches the city, Jakartans should brace for strong winds especially during the transitional period, says the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG).

The head of the agency’s  meteorology center, Widada Sulistya, said the winds, which marked the transition from the dry to wet seasons, could occur for up to 30 minutes and blow at up to 30 kilometers per hour, fast enough to uproot a tree.

“If you see black clouds hanging on the sky, watch out. There will be hard winds and lightning,” he said.

Such winds, he said, often came without hard rain.

According to the weather forecast for Monday to Wednesday,  strong winds would blow in the afternoons, from around 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Widada said residents who have tall trees or lived near tall trees should be prepared.

Prevention could include trimming and shortening the trees as the wind tended to blow harder on the higher banches, he said.

The wind had shown its power uprooting trees in the past weeks.

Strong winds uprooted a tree on Jl. Panjang in Kebon Jeruk, West Jakarta, on Thursday afternoon last week, causing long traffic delays and cutting power to around 200 homes and businesses.

The angsana  tree brought down power lines, forcing the state-owned electricity company, PT PLN, to cut electricity to the surrounding area.

No fatalities were reported in the incident, but residents said a motorcyclist fell avoiding the falling tree.

On Jl. Joglo Raya in Kembangan, West Jakarta, strong winds toppled a tree on Nov. 12, destroying a stall and hitting a minivan as well as bringing down the electricity cable. The minivan driver was unfortunately electrocuted trying to remove the cable.

Dwi Bintarto, head of the park division at the city’s parks and cemeteries agency, said residents could report trees at risk in public place to the nearby district office as the sub-agency had officers available with tools to trim such trees.

The residents, he said, would be referred to a third party if the risky tree was on their own property.

Dwi said a total of 353 trees had been uprooted and around 400 had lost branches, mostly during the seasonal transition periods.

He said as a precautionary measure the agency had trimmed 13,000 out of 15,000 trees that potentially might be a hazard to the public.

Widada said rains during the transition period would also be hard and last for up to two hours.

“The rains occur in random places in different time,” he said.

Rain in the transitional period, he said, should not cause floods if the drainage system worked well.
Although floods caused by rain water have not hit the city, many areas have suffered from inundations, triggering very heavy traffic congestion, mostly in the afternoons.

Bayu Wardhana, an activist with the NGO Green Map Jakarta, said residents could help prevent floods in their areas by building biopore absorption wells locally.

“Residents can cooperate to do it. We can’t wait for the city to enforce the bylaw on biopore absorption,” he said.

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