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Parts of Indonesian capital and its suburbs were flooded after two tropical cyclones off the nation’s coast triggered heavy rainfall overnight, inundating houses in low-lying areas and causing a power outage.
More than 80 spots of flooding were reported in Jakarta and the satellite cities of Bekasi and Tangerang by Tuesday morning with the water level in Ciliwung river that runs through the capital steadily rising, according to the National Disaster Mitigation Agency.
Heavy rainfall may continue to lash the greater Jakarta area under the influence of tropical cyclone Esther in the Gulf of Carpentaria and Ferdinand in the Indian Ocean, the Meteorological, Climatological and Geophysics Agency said on Twitter. State-owned electricity company PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara said more than 300 electrical substations in the flooded areas were shut down temporarily for safety.
At least 60 people were killed and thousands were forced to flee homes early this year in the deadliest flooding to hit Jakarta in more than a decade during which floodwaters rose as high as a single-story house. President Joko Widodo has ordered the relocation of capital to Borneo island as the Jakarta metropolitan area, home to almost 30 million people, is regularly flooded.
The flooding disrupted normal life in the city with some schools closed and rail and bus operations partially hit. PT Jasa Marga diverted traffic from two toll roads connecting the capital to its suburbs following water-logging of the highways, the company said in a statement.
The Jakarta administration suspended the traffic restrictions on its main streets for the day after the meteorological bureau recorded more than 200 millimeters of rainfall in some areas, showers considered as extreme by the forecaster.
–With assistance from Harry Suhartono.
Photograph: In this picture taken on July 12, 2019 a man walks on a flooded road in between abandoned warehouses and a giant sea wall in northern Jakarta. – Indonesia’s capital is being swallowed into the ground at such an alarming rate that experts warn much of it could be submerged by 2050. (Photo credit BAY ISMOYO/AFP via Getty Images)