H

eavy rain for two days has caused rivers and a lake to overflow in Gorontalo, flooding thousands of houses in three regencies.

Gorontalo Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD Gorontalo) recorded the three affected regencies as Bone Bolango, Boalemo and Gorontalo.

Gorontalo is the worst-hit regency with at least nine districts inundated with floodwater to a depth of up to 1.2 meters displacing 4,296 people.

“The floods have affected 1,222 families. Some are remaining in their houses,” Sucipto Abdullah, an official at the Gorontalo Social Affairs Agency, told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

The nine districts affected are Boliyohuto, Asparaga, Bilato, Limboto, West Limboto, Tibawa, Tolangohula, Dungaliyo and Tilango.

In Tibawa district, people were evacuated to higher roadsides. In West Limboto, two residents had to be rushed to hospital after being hit by a falling tree.

The floods also hit a local police station and the regency-owned Dunda Limboto Hospital from Tuesday night until Wednesday morning.

The hospital was forced to move 80 patients to several locations including the Kasmat Lahay hall near the regent’s office as ankle-deep floodwaters inundated the wards.

The floods mostly have subsided but some regions including Bolihuangga are still inundated. The flooding hit Bolihuangga after the nearby Lake Limboto, the biggest in Gorontalo province, overflowed.

In Bone Bolango regency flooding hit Bulango district after the Bulango River broke its banks.

In Boalemo regency, flooding hit a number of subdistricts. At least 390 houses and 612 hectares of agricultural fields were inundated up to a depth of 2 meters.

“It was relatively challenging for us because we don’t have a mobile public kitchen that can reach remote areas,” said Mus Soha, the head of Boalemo disaster agency.

Gorontalo environmental activist Rahman Dako said that apart from the extreme weather, the widespread floods were caused by extensive environmental destruction in the region.

He cited as an example that the 3,301-hectare Lake Limboto had at least 86,861 hectares of hinterland.

However, he said, the hinterland currently had only some 10 percent of forestry. The remaining 90 percent had been converted into other functions ranging from agriculture, oil palm plantations, production forest and mining sites to residential complexes.

The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) previously issued an early warning on potential heavy rain for Oct. 25 to 27 in Jakarta, West Java, Central Java, East Java, South Sulawesi, Southeast Sulawesi, Central Sulawesi, West Sulawesi, North Sulawesi, Gorontalo, North Maluku, Southeast Maluku, Papua and West Papua.

Sudden flooding hit some parts of the city of Bandung, West Java, on Monday afternoon, including Jl. Dr. Djunjunan (better known as Jl. Pasteur and Jl. Pagarsih), sweeping away several cars and causing the death of a resident.