340,000 flee flooded Indonesia capital!

[KoKo]

By IRWAN FIRDAUS, Associated Press Writer1 hour, 35 minutes ago

Boats ferried supplies to desperate residents of Indonesia's flood-stricken capital on Sunday as rivers burst their banks following days of rain. At least 20 people have been killed and almost 340,000 forced from their homes, officials said.

Hundreds of people scrambled to the second floors of their houses to escape the rising waters. Some found themselves trapped, while others refused to leave despite warnings that the muddy flood waters — running over 13 feet deep in places — may rise further in the coming days.

"Jakarta is now on the highest alert level," said Sihar Simanjuntak, an official who monitors the many rivers that crisscross this city of 12 million people. "The floods are getting worse."

Indonesia's meteorological agency is forecasting two weeks of rain.

The government dispatched medical teams on rubber rafts into the worst-hit districts to prevent outbreaks of disease among residents without clean drinking water.

Edi Darma, an official at Jakarta's Flood Crisis Center, said 20 people had died in Jakarta and surrounding towns as of late Sunday, mostly either by drowning or electrocution.

Survivors told of being stranded by the surging waters. "We were starving for two days," said Sri Hatyati, who was rescued from her house by soldiers on a dinghy Sunday on the city's western outskirts. "All we had were dried noodles. We were unable to go anywhere."

Incessant rain that starting falling Thursday on Jakarta and the hills south of the city triggered the floods, the worst in recent memory. Tens of thousands of homes, school and hospitals — in poor and wealthy districts alike — were inundated.

Authorities have cut off electricity and the water supply in many districts.

Dr. Rustam Pakaya, from the health ministry's crisis center, said nearly 340,000 people had been forced from their homes. He said many of the homeless were staying with friends or family or at mosques and government buildings.

"We fear that diarrhea and dysentery may break out, as well as illnesses spread by rats," Pakaya said. "People must be careful not to drink dirty water."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070204/ap_on_re_as/indonesia_floods&printer=1;_ylt=AiGfSFeHJhVG6P85AH5kjTb9xg8F;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MXN1bHE0BHNlYwN0bWE-

[leftchick]

1. Global Warming

expect these folks to never go home and many more Islands in the region to disappear.

[pscot]

3. More like stupidity compounded by greed

Sell off all the timber, clearcut the hillsides, then wring their hands and cry Mercy when the rain starts the bare soil moving.

[SoCalDem]

2. "Incessant rain"

That's what normally happens in a tropical or sub tropical climate.

What's different is that millions of people have left the countrysides and crammed into cities. Their countrysides are being deforested for patio furniture & plywood for the "western world" (and probably China)..

That water has to go somewhere, and without the plants in the rainforests slurping up that wonderful water, it all runs off and ends up slamming into the cities where all the people now live..

It ain't rocket science..

When I was a kid in Panama, rainy season meant rain all day..all night for DAYS on end, but we never got flooded.. why? because the jungle USED that water and stored that water in all the plants and in the damp swampy areas of the jungle. The dry season only meant rain once a day and the stored moisture was there for the taking :)