Monday, 05 February 2007 @ 2:28pm.
From a U.S. Embassy Jakarta email today:
“As of February 5, 2007, more than 400,000 people have been left homeless by flooding. Traffic in metropolitan Jakarta and on access roads into Jakarta has been seriously disrupted. Landline and cellular telephone connections are disrupted in many parts of the city. Power outages are widespread. Indonesian government meteorologists predict continued heavy rainfall over the next several days and sporadic heavy rains continuing until early March… Many government offices and commercial businesses in Jakarta are closed or operating on restricted hours due to flooding. Access to Jakarta’s Soekarno Hatta International Airport is difficult, and travel between the airport and Central Jakarta is taking several hours. Taxis are in short supply and some taxi drivers have increased fares significantly.”
Here are a couple of pictures I snapped yesterday:
Jl. Wahid Hasyim near Sarinah Mall
Motorbike trying to get through the flooded Jl. Wahid Hasyim
CNN.COM International reported today that… “Jakarta’s heavily-criticized governor said he could not be held responsible for the worst floods to hit the city in living memory, saying they were a “natural phenomenon” that occur every five years. “There is no point in throwing abuse around,” Governor Sutiyoso told el-Shinta radio station. “I was up till 3:00 a.m. this morning trying to handle the refugees.” Simanjuntak [a river monitor] said just under 40 percent of the city had been flooded. Another official earlier said that 75 percent of Jakarta was affected. It was not immediately possible to resolve the discrepancy, but Indonesian officials often release different statistics during a disaster.” CNN continued, “As of Monday, 25 people had died, mostly by drowning or electrocution, officials said.”
