Thousands of People Evacuated
MAKASSAR, KOMPAS — Excessive rain is expected until the end of January, while the peak of the rainy season is predicted to arrive in February. Floods and landslides remain major hazards.
Thousands of people have been evacuated from floods and landslides in a number of areas. In addition to excessive rain and the poor condition of rivers and water catchment, extreme high tide inundated several areas.
Several regencies in South Sulawesi remained flooded on Tuesday evening due to heavy rainfall since the previous evening. Landslides and land subsidence cut off a number of roads. In Gowa regency, the regional government issued an emergency warning due to the rising level of water in the Bili-Bili dam, causing thousands of local residents to flee.
Flooding has paralyzed activities in Makassar city and Gowa regency. Flooding also hit the regencies of Maros, Pangkajene Islands (Pangkep), Barru, Takalar and Jeneponto. In Makassar, several pivotal roads and residential areas were submerged by floodwaters of 30 centimeters to more than 1 meter deep. Excessive rain and strong winds since Monday evening have toppled many trees.
In Gowa regency, landslides near the Bili-Bili Dam cut off the Makassar-Malino access road that connects to Sinjai regency. Hundreds of four-wheeled vehicles were trapped overnight.
"Since noon, cars cannot pass here, only motorcycles,” said motorist Basaruddin, 50, who was trapped on the road. “I want to get back to Malino after visiting relatives in Gowa, whose houses were flooded. They fled to Bantaeng. If the road doesn\'t open by this evening, I will sleep in a car," he said.
The nearby Je\'ne Lata Bridge, which provides an alternative route to Sungguminasa (Gowa) and Takalar for Bili-Bili residents, is impassable. "The bridge was cut off this afternoon. Heavy rain fell over a few days and continued until last night. The Je\'ne Lata River overflowed and cut off the bridge," said Nasir Daeng Bantang, 55, a resident of Moncongloe in Manuju district, Gowa.
In South Lampung regency, Lampung province, excessive rain also caused flooding and landslides. By Tuesday afternoon, a landslide had buried the main road in Kelawi village, Bakauheni district, South Lampung, cutting off the access between villages in the district.
Bakauheni district head Zaidan said that landslides had occurred two locations. Flooding in Bakauheni village submerged 60 houses in 1 meter of water. Hundreds of people were displaced.
In East Java, flooding also hit Sidoarjo, paralyzing the Porong thoroughfare. Floodwaters also inundated a number of villages.
Jakarta rains
Climatological predictions indicate that the rainy season would likely last until the beginning of March. "We previously predicted that the rainy season would peak in January, but this could shift to February or March. The dry season is predicted to start in April," said Siswanto, the production and air quality information head at the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG).
The rainy season was predicted to peak in February in Jakarta and surrounding areas. "For now, the average rainfall in Jakarta and most parts of Indonesia is actually normal, and even tends to be lower than normal. However, rainfall has begun to increase in the last three days," he said.
Excessive rain is caused by the arrival of humid air from the Indian Ocean, as well as the growing strength of the Asian monsoon. The public has been advised to be alert to the threat of hydrometeorological disasters, especially landslides.
BMKG meteorology deputy Mulyono Prabowo said that based on atmospheric dynamics analysis, the humid air mass would move from the Indian Ocean over Java, Kalimantan, Bali, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) and East Nusa Tenggara (NTT). In addition, the cold monsoon in Asia had begun to grow in intensity.
Meanwhile, the surface temperature of Indonesian waters was warm, resulting in high precipitation and large cloud formations. "The BMKG has also detected a convergence zone in the last few days that extends from southern Sumatra, Java Sea, East Java and Bali to NTB and NTT," explained Mulyono.
The tropical cyclone warning center also reported three tropical cyclone seeds near Indonesia. One of these is in the Timor Sea and could potentially develop into a tropical cyclone in the next three days. This could bring extreme weather in the form of strong winds of over 25 knots to several regions, such as Riau, Riau Islands, Jambi, South Sumatra, Bangka Belitung, Banten, Jakarta, Central Java, East Java, Bali, NTB, NTT, Southeast Sulawesi and South Sulawesi.
In Serang regency, Banten, extreme weather sunk a passenger ferry, with one of its 22 passengers reported missing. The wooden ferry ran aground when crossing the Ciujung River, which had overflowed due to heavy rain.
Operational control center officer Arif Hermawan of the Serang disaster management agency said that heavy rain fell overnight until dawn. The ferry crossed the Ciujung River around 6:30 a.m. A passenger, Suhanda, 38, was swept away and remained missing. The rescue team had still not located the missing passenger by 5:00 p.m.
State of Alert
Due to the rising water level at the Bili-Bili Dam, Gowa Regent Adnan Purichta Ichsan had issued the Alert (Waspada) emergency status.
The warning was issued on the recommendation from the Pompengan Jeneberang river management agency (BBWS). "We decided to issue the emergency status and advised residents living downstream of the dam to evacuate. The dam\'s water level has exceeded the normal level and the sluicegates were opened," he said.
Pompengan Jeneberang BBWS head Teuku Iskandar verified the emergency status. According to data collected at 5:20 p.m. local time, Bili-Bili’s water level had risen to 101.85 meters. The dam’s normal water level is below 95 meters, while the maximum level is 103 meters.
Most of the residents in several districts had been evacuated by Tuesday afternoon. "We have evacuated the women and children from the villages," said Abdul Rauf Daeng Tunrung, a resident of Manuju. (REN/VIO/AIK/BAY)