The Jakarta Police and the Jakarta Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) have reported six casualties from the recent flooding in Jakarta and Bekasi, West Java.

In North Jakarta, 26-year-old Juminah, 92-year-old Suwito and 41-year-old Tukiyem were electrocuted at their house on Jl. Bisma Timur. The same fate befell 53-year-old Ratini bin Kamadi at her house in West Jakarta. Meanwhile, 38-year-old Mukhtar drowned in the Sentiong River in Central Jakarta, while Rizky Fahriansyah drowned in the Cipinang River in East Jakarta.

In Bekasi, West Java, 31-year-old Haryani was electrocuted at her house.

Although few parts of the capital city experienced heavy rain on Thursday, the number of evacuees rose from less than 7,000 on Wednesday to 8,634.

According to Jakarta BPBD data, evacuees were housed in 86 shelters across Jakarta. North Jakarta accounted for the area with the most evacuees with 5,573 people, followed by West Jakarta with 2,761 people.

Although most shelters were set up in public facilities, such as mosques, schools or subdistrict offices, many residents opted to take temporary shelter in Transjakarta bus shelters, including in the Jembatan Tiga bus shelter in North Jakarta and Jembatan Baru in West Jakarta. Meanwhile, others preferred to set up camp next to railway tracks in the two municipalities.

Jakarta BPBD head of operations Basuki Rakhmat said that his agency had been distributing goods to the evacuees.

'€œWe are doing our best to give support to the evacuees. We'€™re ready to provide whatever they need, including blankets, meals or diapers. We also have been receiving generous help from various organizations, such as the World Bank and the UN,'€ Basuki told The Jakarta Post in his office in Central Jakarta on Thursday.

He went on that the agency was updating residents every six hours about potential rainfall as well as the water levels in reservoirs and sluice gates to anticipate floods.

Meanwhile, after an almost week-long dispute with state-electricity operator PLN, Jakarta Governor Basuki '€œAhok'€ Tjahaja Purnama met with PLN Jakarta and Tangerang Distribution Area general manager Haryanto to clear the air.

Ahok had blamed PLN for the flooding in Central Jakarta earlier this week after the firm cut the power in Pluit in North Jakarta to avoid accidental electrocution in case of flooding. The Pluit Reservoir therefore had to rely on a power generator, which could only power two of nine water pumps.

'€œPLN and the Jakarta administration have agreed to build a separate power house for [all] water pumps, so that electricity to reservoirs and the sluice gates won'€™t be cut,'€ Ahok told reporters after the meeting at City Hall on Thursday.

Currently, he said, electricity for water pumps was distributed from the same power house that provided domestic electricity. '€œTherefore, as of 2016, our water pumps will no longer be disturbed by blackouts [in residential areas],'€ Ahok said, adding that the location and value of the power houses was still in discussion.

Earlier in the day, Ahok went on an impromptu visit to the Sunter River embankment construction site in North Jakarta, a project under the authority of the Public Works Ministry. Ahok said the development of the embankment, which has been in construction since 2013, had previously been hampered by trivial administrative issues. He revealed he had asked for the immediate completion of the embankment.

The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) has warned that residents in the Greater Jakarta area should anticipate heavy rainfall this weekend into the beginning of next week. The BMKG forecasts heavy rain with an intensity of 50 to 100 millimeters, accompanied by rising sea levels on Jakarta'€™s north coast.

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