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Storm goes wild across Jakarta
All aboard!: Motorcyclists hitch a ride on a cart to pass through a flooded street in the Petogogan residential area in South Jakarta on Monday
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span class="inline inline-left">All aboard!: Motorcyclists hitch a ride on a cart to pass through a flooded street in the Petogogan residential area in South Jakarta on Monday. Flooding returned to the subdistrict and nearby areas following downpours. JP/J. Adiguna
A heavy thunderstorm coupled with strong winds wreaked damage at several public facilities in the capital and its outskirts Monday afternoon.
At City Hall, rain and wind felled a lamppost, uprooted a tree that damaged an electricity pole, and flooded parts of the building, including the archives and the PR room.
“This is the first time we’ve had such severe flooding this year,” said Oyon, a janitor at the building.
He added City Hall had previously been flooded in 2002, 2005 and 2007.
Parts of the building were ankle-deep in water, while a patch of lawn was also flooded.
Oyon said the archives were relatively safe.
Officials in the PR room had to move out documents from the bottom drawers of filing cabinets.
In Kuningan, South Jakarta, strong winds blew the roof off a Transjakarta shelter, sending it crashing in front of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) office, detik.com reported.
None of the demonstrators rallying outside the building at the time were injured.
The protesters continued their rally in the building’s yard to avoid the rain.
High winds and heavy downpours also uprooted trees in other parts of the city, causing traffic jams at several spots, the Jakarta Police’s Traffic Management Center (TMC) reported.
The TMC website said fallen trees had obstructed traffic flow in 10 areas, with the worst congestion along Jl. Proklamasi in Central Jakarta and Pulomas in East Jakarta.
“It took an hour to clear the trees from the roads,” the TMC’s First Brig. Tatak told The Jakarta Post over the phone.
“There were no casualties as a result of the accidents, as all commuters took shelter when the trees fell.”
Trees were also blown down at Mediros Hospital in East Jakarta and in several spots across Central Jakarta, including behind Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital, Cideng, in front of Wisma Metropolitan, Pasar Baru and around the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT) building.
Tatak said Tuesday’s rainfall had caused flooding on several busy roads until 3:40 p.m.
“We had big puddles in the Casablanca tunnel in South Jakarta, and around the WIKA office in Cawang in East Jakarta,” he said.
“Traffic there was extremely congested.”
On Sunday, high winds and rain in Ciputat, South Tangerang, caused a billboard to fall over, injuring several people.
The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) has asked the South Tangerang administration to check all billboards across the municipality.
“The administration must conduct routine checks and rechecks of billboards to prevent similar accidents recurring,” Yanuar, from the BMKG’s office in Pondok Aren, said Monday.
He added many billboards in South Tangerang had been weakened over time and were thus prone to collapse, particularly during the rainy season.
“We therefore ask the authorities to check the conditions of all billboards and old trees and buildings prone to wind damage,” Yanuar said.
The BMKG says wind speeds in excess of 55 kilometers an hour can knock down billboards and trees.
