SAVING HUNDREDS

Jakarta is the capital city of Indonesia. About 40 percent of Jakarta lies below sea level. Every year the city gets a lot of rain and that often causes floods. The authorities have tried to solve this problem for years. They tried to educate people about the causes of floods. Swamp neighbourhoods, illegal water wells and climate change have caused the city to sink faster than any other city. That is why it gets even worse when they have heavy rain or rain that lasts for a long time.

At the end of 2019, the rain caused terrible flash floods around the country. They killed at least 60 people and left more than 170,000 people homeless. The officials said that it was the most intense period of rainfall for more than 20 years. Its effects were so terrible so the government decided to relocate the capital to East Kalimantan Province, on the island of Borneo.

On Tuesday, country’s Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency announced that they recorded more than 30 cm of rain. The rain continued on Wednesday as well. According to the National Disaster Management Agency Nearly 400,000 people were displaced by Friday. More than 100 rescue workers from the country’s emergency relief agency and several soldiers were sent to the area on Thursday. Teams of emergency workers tried to clear flooded streets and repair power lines because they were harmed by the rain and flood. According to one of the workers the streets were like rushing rivers. The water was so fast that it could even push parked vehicles.

Many families were trapped in their houses. They weren’t able to go anywhere. They had to stay in their houses and wait for rescuers for more than two days. In some parts of the country police and soldiers dropped boxes of noodles so that people wouldn’t starve. A high school teacher from Jakarta said that they were on a trip with 250 students on the banks of Sembor River. The group didn’t have any idea about the changing weather situation. That’s why they continued their trip even after the rain started. They were doing scouting activities when they realised that it started raining very heavily. Then the rain caused the riverbank to burst and cause flood. Students were rescued by the officials. One of them said, “I saw huge waves coming and ran away from the river as fast as I could.”