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Floods swamp homes in Surakarta, Yogyakarta
Colorful life: Residents repair and decorate their homes on the banks of the Code River in Yogyakarta on Thursday
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span class="caption">Colorful life: Residents repair and decorate their homes on the banks of the Code River in Yogyakarta on Thursday. The river overflowed after heavy rain on Wednesday night and inundated the houses. JP/Tarko Sudiarno
Floods inundated thousands of homes in Surakarta, Central Java, and hundreds of others in neighboring Yogyakarta province on Thursday after rain drenched the regions overnight from Wednesday afternoon.
In Surakarta, flooding, which was in part caused by the overflowing Pepe River in the city's north, inundated a number of regions by up to 1 meter, forcing residents to flee their homes.
Worst-hit areas included Banyuanyar, Banyuagung and Sumber, including areas around the residence of President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo's extended family.
'The floodwater continued to rise and started inundating houses at midnight,' Rohani of Banyuanyar said.
Another local, Haryadi of Banyuagung, said his village started to flood very early Thursday, forcing people to evacuate when the floodwater continued to rise.
'People hit kentongan [bamboo drums] to alert others,' Haryadi said.
On Thursday morning, residents were seen crowding evacuation centers in Tapen, Nusukan, as volunteers from the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) and city administration evacuated elderly people and children and manned mobile public
kitchens.
'We have sent mobile public kitchens to a number of locations,' Surakarta Mayor FX Hadi Rudyatmo said, adding that the administration no longer used tents for the purpose because mobile public kitchens were more practical and efficient.
Hadi also said his office had asked for help from the Surakarta Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD), National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas), the military and the police to deal with the flooding.
Floods also inundated neighboring Boyolali and Sukoharjo regencies.
In Yogyakarta, a flash flood destroyed hundreds of houses and facilities, including fish farms in Timbulharjo, Sewon, Bantul regency.
The flooding was a result of the overflowing Code River and damage to its embankments following overnight rain Wednesday. The river runs through Yogyakarta city and Bantul regency.'The flash flood inundated hundreds of houses here,' said Sugiarto of Sayidan, Yogyakarta, whose house is located on the banks of the Code River.
He said flooding occurred suddenly in his area, giving residents no time to save their belongings. Hundreds of electronic devices and appliances were damaged in the flood.
On Thursday afternoon, hundreds of people living on the banks of the Code River cleaned mud from their houses and neighborhoods. They also tried to reinforced damaged embankments with sandbags.
Bantul BPBD head Dwi Daryanto said heavy rain and strong winds had caused a number of trees to topple.
'The overflowing river indeed caused flash floods in a number of regions, but they subsided the following morning,' Dwi said, adding that agency staff members and volunteers were staying on guard around the clock to monitor conditions and collect data.
