Floods overwhelmed Indonesia’s capital Jakarta, causing thousands of people to be evacuated, according to officials, with heavy rain likely to continue until next week.
Torrential rains have caused floods of up to three metres (yards) in and around Jakarta since Monday, according to the country’s disaster agency, closing several roads and sinking over 1,000 residences and cars.
The local government was urged to turn on water pumps to remove water from flooded areas and carry out weather modification operations, which usually involve launching salt flares into clouds to cause rain before it reaches land, after Jakarta Governor Pramono Anung raised the alert level to the second-highest of the critical stages.
According to the report, floodwaters also overflowed a hospital in the eastern town of Bekasi, forcing patients to evacuate to other buildings as water entered several wards and caused power outages in other areas of the institution.
Rescuers on rubber boats sailed through thigh-high water to evacuate residents that had been trapped in floods since 4 a.m. (2100 GMT) at a housing complex in Bekasi, reporters said.
The country’s weather agency warned that heavy rain is forecast to hit the capital and surrounding cities until March 11.
The government has started building temporary shelters and distributing foods, clothes, and medications for the evacuees, said social affairs minister Saifullah Yusuf.
Residents were also evacuated to schools, mosques and churches.
The Greater Jakarta metropolitan area, home to more than 30 million people, is regularly hit by floods. But several local media reported the current situation, particularly in Bekasi, was the worst since 2020.
