Multiple deaths reported as floods, landslide strike Jakarta

Sanitation workers clear away garbage from the Mampang-Kuningan underpass in Central Jakarta on Wednesday. Main thoroughfares and toll roads in the city were inundated after heavy rainfall in the first day of 2020. Antara/Aprillio Akbar via The Jakarta Post/Asia News Network

JAKARTA — Severe flooding in Jakarta has claimed at least three lives and forced hundreds of residents to flee their homes after heavy rains from Tuesday evening to Wednesday morning inundated both residential and commercial areas across the capital.

Sixteen-year-old Alvico Arif Ardana died from an apparent electric shock after floodwaters inundated his residential complex in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta, on Wednesday, said Jakarta Police spokesperson Sr. Com. Yusri Yunus.

“The witness, a neighborhood unit [RT] head, received information from residents that someone had been electrocuted,” he told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

He added that the victim had been found close to a power pole and the case had been reported to the Kemayoran Police. Yusri said Alvico’s family had agreed not to perform a post mortem or file a lawsuit.

He also confirmed that an 82-year-old man named Mokh. Ali had drowned in a flood in Cipinang Melayu, East Jakarta. Police believe that another two fatalities in the area, identified as Muhammad Ali, 82, and Nawa, 60, are still trapped in their inundated home.

National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) spokesperson Agus Wibowo told the Post that one person had been killed in a landslide in Bogor, West Java.

Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan has prioritized several areas in East Jakarta for evacuation, including Cawang, Kayu Putih and Cakung, Agus said in a statement on Wednesday.

BNPB head Lt. Gen. Doni Monardo will oversee evacuation efforts in a helicopter, the statement added.

East Jakarta Fire and Rescue Agency head Gatot Sulaeman told the Post that more than 500 residents had been evacuated from 10 locations in Pulo Gadung, Ciracas, Makasar, Jatinegara, Duren Sawit, Kramat Jati and Cakung, East Jakarta, on Wednesday.

In a recorded statement to Jakarta administration staffers received by the Post, Anies said that all government offices and schools should be ready to serve as shelters for evacuees. He emphasized road safety, including by preparing alternative routes for modes of public transportation affected by the floods.

Commuter train operator PT Kereta Commuter Indonesia (KCI) said adjustments had been made to some routes because of flooding in some areas.

The operator has temporarily halted the Lintas Duri-Tangerang route and trains were unable to pass Tanah Abang Station. Commuters traveling from Rangkasbitung, Maja, Parungpanjang and Serpong will have to disembark at Palmerah Station or Kebayoran Station.

Passengers traveling from Bogor, Depok and Nambo to Angke Jatinegara and back will have to alight at Manggarai Station. Trains serving the Citayam-Bojong Gede route have slowed to 40 kilometers per hour due flooding.