Floods hit Semarang following overnight rain

Heavy downpours from Sunday night until very early Monday morning caused floods in Semarang between 20 and 30 centimeters deep along the main roads of the port city paralyzing Tawang railway station.

Traffic across the city was brought to a standstill by the floodwaters as people attempted to start the work week on Monday morning.

The flood inundated the Bubakan traffic circle at the northern end of Jl. MT Haryono.

Areas around Pasar Johar, Pasar Dargo, Jl. Pemuda, Jl. Mpu Tantular, Jl. Letjen Suprapto were severely affected, along with and other sections of the city’s streets and the Tlogosari residential complex, Kota Lama region, Jl. Medoho, Jl. Patimura and Jl. Gajah.

“I got myself trapped in the flood,” said Rudi Widodo, whose motorbike stalled after he attempted to ride through the high water.

At Tawang railway station, at least 16 trains arriving at or departing Semarang were delayed as the railway in Alas Tuwo, some 6 kilometers from downtown Semarang, was affected by the flood.

“We pulled the trains using a BB-300 freight locomotive to assist them through the flood and continue their trip,” the vice president of the state-run railway company PT Kereta Api Indonesia in the Semarang region, Septa T. Ramadin, said Monday.

The flood forced hundreds of Surabaya-bound passengers to wait for their train, which was caught in high water about five kilometers west of Semarang.

Head of the company’s public relation division Sapto Hartoyo said a number of trains experienced lengthy delays at Tawang station over the course of the day.

The flood eventually subsided as Monday’s weather cleared. However, heavy clouds returned in the afternoon, threatening more rain and potentially more flooding the following day.