The intense rains began on New Year’s Eve and continued ceaselessly, through the nights leading to major parts of the city being submerged and causing landslides on the outskirts. According to the weather reports and data on Jakarta’s monthly average rainfall, the month with heaviest and maximum rainfall in January with 402 millimetres of average recorded rainfall. The average rainfall for month of December was 204 millimetres.
The rainfall that started at the end of December, until now has been recorded to be 370 millimetres (14.5 inches) of rainfall in just three days which is – more than three times the average amount – particularly recorded in Jakarta and West Java’s hilly areas. The Indonesian authorities have confirmed the deaths of at least 30 people.
Nearly 67,000 Jakaratans had been evacuated to temporary shelters throughout the city by Friday morning, the authorities said based upon their services rendered to the people, these numbers are based upon the estimated numbers and head counts gathered.
The footages collected show vehicles being fully submerged in the flooded towns. According to the disaster mitigation agency, water levels in east and south Jakarta as well as in the satellite cities of Tangerang and Bekasi in West Java province started to rise from 3:00 am local time (2000 GMT) on Wednesday.
Indonesia’s state electricity utility authorities said it had switched off the power in hundreds of districts in Jakarta, which is home to 30 million people, who are out of power, electricity, street lights, and other emergency places are out of power as well. The floods also caused the temporary closure of the runways at Jakarta’s domestic Halim airport, with flights redirected to the capital’s bigger Soekarno airport.
The heavy rainfall is expected to continue until the weekend. In East Jakarta 335 mm was recorded, while in Bekasi, further east, 259 mm water fell from the skies. Rainfall above 150 mm per day is considered extreme by the agency.
Due to more than average rainfall, floods are running in the streets, on the roads and in the homes of residents. Thunderstorms also are also the cause of flash floods, in which small rivers can swell quickly and carry up to ten times the normal amount of water. Floods are not always a ‘natural disaster’, they are also caused by human activities. Trees and plants normally help absorb water, but when forests are cut or burned down, water from rainfall flows down barren land and produces mudslides. A huge water pressure on dams can lead to cracks in the concrete or even cause a dam to break completely and this time rain fall can cause these damages as well and authorities are very much concerned on these all the issues in Indonesia, where lives have been already taken by these floods and heavy rain falls.
Flood losses are massive and violently destructive during this rain fall in Indonesia according to the Indonesian authorities. Protection against floods in prone and coastal areas are a mandatory practice that should be followed by the residents according to the authorities. Sometimes the ecosystem’s ability for flood control fails, due to extreme soil erosions and weakened roots. In such events, infrastructural management act as an artificial backup plan for flood control should be in action.
Every year floods cause enormous damage to life and property all around the world. According to research reports analysed by the scientist’s data collectors by flood type and location it has been observed that average mortality is relatively constant for the different types over various continents, while the magnitude of the impacts (numbers of killed) and affected for a certain type rain falls, floods and thunderstorms vary between the different continents. On a worldwide scale Asian river floods are most significant in terms of number of persons killed and affected.
According to Jakarta Police spokesperson that the railroads are also damaged and it has stopped and disturbed the transportation system. Children are playing in the dirty water, residents are pushing out the mud slid water out of their homes. This rain fall and flood has caused multimillion dollars damage in the country.
