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City deploys joint team to evacuate, assist residents after floods hit Greater Jakarta
The Jakarta Disaster Mitigation Agency has reported that 973 families consisting of 3,565 people have been evacuated to 40 locations following floods across the city.
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A resident wades through water while carrying a child during a flood in Cilangkap, East Jakarta, on Tuesday. Heavy rains since Monday morning have caused parts of the capital to flood. (Antara/Yulius Satria Wijaya)
T
he Jakarta administration has deployed a joint team comprising officials of several agencies to distribute aid and evacuate residents affected by severe floods that hit Tuesday across Greater Jakarta due to heavy rainfall overnight.
The team comprises officers of the Jakarta Water Resources Agency, the Jakarta Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD Jakarta), the Jakarta Social Agency, the Jakarta Fire and Rescue Agency and the Public Facility Maintenance Agency.
Together with the Jakarta Search and Rescue Agency, the Jakarta Fire and Rescue Agency has evacuated thousands of residents affected by the floods. Meanwhile, BPBD Jakarta and the social agency, assisted by the health agency, have established emergency shelters and distributed aid to the evacuees.
“As of [Tuesday] noon, 294 neighborhood units, 10.74 percent of the total in Greater Jakarta, had been severely affected by the floods, with the highest water level of 200 centimeters occurring in Cawang subdistrict,” BPBD Jakarta said in a statement on Tuesday.
The agency reported that 973 families consisting of 3,565 people had been evacuated to 40 locations including local mosques, community offices, post offices, schools, integrated child-friendly public spaces, integrated health services posts (Posyandu) and low-cost apartments.
The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency’s (BMKG) rainfall distribution map revealed that the daily rainfall intensity from 7 a.m. on Monday until 7 a.m. on Tuesday in Greater Jakarta ranged from the categories of very heavy to extreme, causing rivers to overflow and prompting authorities to increase the alert level at several floodgates.
Extreme rainfall intensity at a rate of more than 150 millimeters per day occurred in seven BMKG stations in Greater Jakarta, with the highest number recorded at the Kemayoran Meteorological Station with 278 mm per day.
The capital and its surrounding areas have been experiencing constant rainfall since the rainy season started late last year. Massive flooding occurred on New Year’s Eve, claiming at least nine lives and displacing thousands of others. (syk)
