H

eavy downpours across the country have continued to cause flooding and landslides.

In Jambi, heavy rains in Rantau Pandan district, Bungo regency, on Tuesday night caused a landslide, cutting off a main road connecting the subdistricts of Rantau Duku, Luluk Mayam and Rantau Pandan.

Soil, big rocks and fallen trees covered the road, preventing people from commuting between the neighboring districts of Rantau Pandan and Bathin III Ulu.

Commuters were forced to wait for hours until a fire agency cleared some of the debris to create temporary access.

“The clearance was just a temporary solution, at least the trapped people could pass through,”
Arpan Tuyani, head of the Bungo Fire Agency, which cleared the debris on Tuesday night, said on Wednesday.

He added that the agency did not have the necessary heavy equipment to clear all the debris.

In West Java, 1,231 customers of state-owned electricity company PLN experienced blackouts due to floods in Karawang and Bekasi.

PLN West Java distribution spokesperson Suargina said nine power stations in Karawang and another one in Bekasi had to be switched off.

Suargina said the power stations were located in submerged areas.

“It was impossible to operate them, as doing so could lead to short circuits,” he said.

“The 10 power stations have been switched off for a week,” he added, as quoted by Antara.

He added that power stations in industrial areas were not affected by floods.

Separately, Bandung Mayor Ridwan Kamil met with House of Representatives Speaker Ade Komarudin on Tuesday afternoon to discuss the situation in Bandung, which has been experiencing severe flooding on account of extreme weather.

“I reported the situation in Bandung city that requires inter-region coordination with regard to the extreme rainy season, floods and so on,” Ridwan said at the House in Jakarta, on Tuesday, as quoted by kompas.com.

Meanwhile, head of the Bandung Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD), Tata Irawan, said 611 families or 2,030 people in the regency had been displaced by the overflowing Citarum River.

They have been staying at evacuation centers for two weeks.

He said the evacuees would need to remain at the evacuation centers for a little longer because the flooding had not eased.

“The floods in Bandung regency are different from the ones in Bandung city. Here, they are massive, fast and deep while in Bandung city water subsides in one to two hours,” he said as quoted by tempo.co, Wednesday.

Tata said the evacuees hailed from three districts, namely Dayeuhkolot, Baleendah and Bojongsoang.

“The evacuation centers are spread in 23 spots in three districts. Some are big, some others are just occupied by two to three families,” he said.