Flooding

Flooding and attendant Miseries

There are basically two seasons in Jakarta, rainy & dry. Both are hot, one however is wetter than the other. April through September are generally dry months whereas the rest are predominately dry with lots of water thrown in for good measure.

The rainy season started early this year with moderate daily showers having started within the last week. Many parts of Jakarta are in low lying areas and consequently, when combined with a total lack of drainage the rainy season makes for an unpleasant six months for the denizens of these areas. It has been said that many of these residents have adapted to the bi-annual semi aquatic environment, however I have yet to see any evidence of webbed feet and gill adaptations on their necks.

When it rains, it chucks it down in humongous buckets, along with the statutory tropical thunderstorm which can be very entertaining. (As long as you are not on a golf course, under a tree with a lightning conductor connected to your testicles)      

When I first move here I lived on the 15th floor of an apartment building where the advance and retreat of these monstrosities could be viewed from a distance. When they became directly overhead, visibility dropped to zero, the thunder achieved deafening volume and the shock waves alone from these blasts was enough to set off the trembler alarms in parked cars below.

The incredible amount of water which is released on these events creates a visibility problem with ones line of sight being limited to less than 100 ft, not to mention the awesome volumes which collect in the aforementioned low lying areas. At the livestock market in Kemang last year, my bold driver (whose name cannot be mentioned for security reasons) and myself were driving into the floodwaters ( No Problem, Have Jeep Grand Cherokee will travel) and witnessed goats, cows and chickens in boxes floating, swimming on short tethers and jumping up and down trying to keep above the rising water levels. It had only started to rain 15 minutes beforehand.

The biggest problem is that these storms start to the south of Jakarta and rain falling on the extinct (well I hope they are extinct) volcanoes around Bogor, pours down the watercourses towards the sea in an almost flashflood fashion. Poor old Jakarta gets it every time and the rising tide from the myriad of small rivers hurtles through the city in no time.

Another side effect is that traffic almost grinds to an even slower standstill. While the slick roads and really deep puddles contribute greatly to this effect, the real reason is, as always the motorcyclists. If it rains they head for shelter, underpasses being a favourite. In less than five minutes during a storm, a three lane underpass becomes an instant bottleneck with up to a few hundred bikers hiding from the rain and the motorists in the more rainproof cars are unable to pass through. As you can imagine, dependant upon the length of the storm, the city can quickly grind to a halt.    

Being a desperately poor nation, the likelihood of anyone having Insurance against flooding is low, even though the situation re-occurs every year. So, once again it’s out of the house with the furniture, dig the house free of mud and hope that when the electricity comes back on that you don’t get zapped like the guy in the James Bond film that got the electrical appliance tossed at him while he was in the bath.