YAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — The death toll from flooding in Indonesia’s capital rose to 43 people on Friday after rescuers recovered more bodies after the water recedes, officials said. Monsoon rains and increased river flow flooded at least 182 neighborhoods in the Jakarta area and caused landslides that buried a dozen people in Bogor and Depok districts on the outskirts of the city.
The official casualty count includes drowned or electrocuted after the river overflows Wednesday after the heavy fall rains on New Year’s Day, disaster mitigation agency spokesman Agus Wibowo said. Three elders died of hypothermia. These were the worst floods since 2013, when monsoon rains left 57 victims dead in the capital. The water began to retreat in some parts of the city on Thursday night, allowing residents to return to their homes. About 397,000 people took refuge in enabled shelters throughout the metropolitan area, Wibowo added.Those who returned to their homes found mud-covered streets and debris. Cars parked at the entrances of the houses were swept away by the force of the water and ended up overturned into parks or stacked in narrow alleys. The sidewalks were full of sandals, pans and pans and old photographs. Authorities took advantage of the water level drop to remove mud and piles of wet rubbish from the streets. Tens of thousands of homes and businesses recovered power supply. Halim Perdanakusuma domestic airport reopened on Thursday after its runway was submerged. The closure affected nearly 20,000 travellers. The floods exposed the infrastructure problems of Indonesia.Yakarta has 10 million inhabitants, 30 with those in the vicinity. It is prone to earthquakes and floods and is sinking rapidly due to the uncontrolled extraction of water from the subsoil. Congestion is thought to cost $6.5 billion annually. In August, the country’s president, Joko Widodo, announced that the capital will move to a location in the sparsely populated province of East Kalimantan, on the island of Borneo, known for its jungles and orangutans.
