Ini kabar2 i diriku, berhubung di buat untuk international dan untuk beberapa boards, maaf kalau ada yg gak nyambung.
Dear all, It feels so good to be back again after 2 weeks of absence. In case you are wondering, despite the horrible flood, I am in good health, so are my hubby and mommy. We had diarrhea for a couple of days, but now we are A-OK. Thank you for your moral support and encouragement. It is good to know that out there, there are people who care for me. It is true like you have watched on the news, that 60% of Jakarta were either flooded or drowned. Come to think of it, it was a bit ridiculous that a capital city of one big country such as Indonesia could be hit by such natural disaster once in every 5 years, and each time it's getting worse than before. I am using the word "ridiculous" because the government and developers seem to easily forget about this regular cycle of storm. The rise of the sea water and shore line reclamation made the condition of Jakarta even worse, while they keep developing the city with greed and total disrespect to our environments. I can only tell you the last 3 floods, because before year 1997, my neighborhood was never flooded. In the year 1997, the flood was only an ankle high in my garage and the water didn't get inside the house, while in the other areas varied from 50 cm to 1 meter high. (1 meter equals to 3.3 feet). 5 years later in 2002, the flooded area in Jakarta grew larger and the water level was higher. My neighborhood suffered from 1 meter-high flooding, while other lower areas drowned in 2 to 4 meters of water which probably equals to millions cubic meters of water. It was the first time for my family to suffer in such terrible disaster. Our car was beyond saving, almost all the glasses in our house (windows, tables, etc) were broken by the strong current and we were trapped inside the house because we were afraid to go out due to the strong current and broken glasses. We waited until the Search And Rescue (SAR) team came and we were evacuated by rafts. Although the water broke the doors and glasses, but it didn't destroy the house or the appliances inside them. For your information, we did not insure our house and car. It was a great lesson to learn. After that disaster we planned to insure our houses and our belongings against every disaster that we might face in the future from fire, earthquake, tsunami, robbery, plane crash, and of course flood. However, our financial condition only allows us to be able to insure just one house. So one house it is. 2007 the flood became even more dangerous. It was ironic that on September 2006 we were planning to move to our other house in other area still in Jakarta called Rawamangun which is located in a high ground and had never been flooded plus already insured. The house is too big for the three of us and that was why we chose to remain in the smaller house and rented the bigger house out. Our tenant decided to extend his lease up to September 2007 and we had agreed to postpone our plan to move out. It never occurred to us that it was 5 years already and the cycle would come back to haunt us. We definitely lost track of time. So the water came so suddenly on Friday night February 2, at 1 a.m. We were awakened by our neighbors who came knocking on our door. When we came out to look, the water was already inside the garage and the living room. We were fast asleep in our beds on the second floor that we didn't hear anything. So, we tried to save whatever we could take to the second floor before we left the house. However, unlike in year 2002, this time the water came in real fast. In only a matter of 2 hours, it already reached 1 meter high. As we have learned, when the water level was 1 meter high, it became too dangerous to swim out because the strong current would drag us like rag dolls. So our family like all other families in the neighborhood could only count on the SAR's rafts to take us out of there. The SAR rafts only came the next morning at 10 a.m. By that time the water level had reached 1.6 meters and it was down pouring as if the sky was about to fall down. Because of the location of our house (easier access), we were the first ones to be saved. The raft could only take 6 people in it (2 rescue workers + 4 passengers). The design of gates and fences in our country usually picks up the form of arrow points or other pointy weapon. During the flood, those gates and fences were under water and it was quite dangerous for the raft to get too close to the houses. The pointy irons might puncture the raft to deflate. So they asked us to swim out from inside the house to the raft. It was only 2 meters away but the strong current made it hard to swim across. The SAR tied our vest with a safety rope which they held in case we were dragged by the current further away. Finally, after that life and death experience, those brave SAR brought us to safety on a higher ground and went back to fetch other people. If this flooding would go higher in year 2012, I think we all should warn the local government to have a strict regulation regarding the traditional design of gates and fences. Plus to have at least one of the SAR workers that look like Oded Fehr to fetch me. My hubby, my mom and I went to the nearest mosque that was used to accommodate flood victims. We went there to change our clothes. We could only carry small backpack because we had to swim out of our house to the raft, but at least we had something to change and didn't have to go around in our wet suite, heh heh we waited there for my brother to pick us up. My brother lives in other province, close to Jakarta. It was about 1 hour drive. We stayed in my brother's house for one week. The reason we stayed for one week was because the flood got even higher for the next 3 days. I stayed in contact with the mosque in our neighborhood and called them regularly to ask the condition of our neighborhood. On the 4th day, the river showed its wrath; the water level reached 2 meters high and many small kiosks, cars and retail stalls were destroyed and washed away by the current. Wooden fences and gates were smashed into pieces, glass doors and windows were broken and the shards were taken away by strong currents piercing rescuers' rafts. Wooden houses were totally destroyed leaving nothing but flotsam and jetsam. In other lower areas, water level reached 8 to 9 meters high, totally annihilating everything in its path: houses, cars, schools, business centers, and of course people. We were so lucky that we chose to get out the first day and didn't wait until it got worse. Many of my neighbors who chose to stay and hoped that by the third day the water would dissipate had to face the cold hard truth that the rescuers could not reach them and had to leave them until the water level dropped a little lower. Many starved for two days for there were no electricity, no water, and in some areas there was even no food. On the fifth day, the ocean showed mercy and the wave calmed down allowing the river water to flow into the sea. The next day, precisely one week later, on Friday the 9th of February, we returned to our house to start cleaning up the mess. We found everything damaged, mostly beyond repairs: TV, washing machine, fridge, furniture, mattresses, clothes, beddings and towels, precious photo albums, paintings, pots and pans, stove, all electric kitchen appliances but what saddened me the most was to find my whole collection of trading cards, comic books, novels, art works, encyclopedias, books of Star Wars, Star Trek and Star Gate destroyed. Including The Mummy Returns complete set of trading cards that I won from sending my fic to the Presidio Med's fan-fic challenge, this one is invaluable. Mythology books that I have collected (Egyptian, Viking, Chinese, Greek and Roman) are lost forever hiks. My DVD, action figure and toy collections are safe on the second floor, untouched by the raging river water. Also the non-fictions books and hard covers are safe (history and archeology). Well, at least I can still watch The Mummy Returns dvd although I have lost the trading cards. Now, I'm comfortably writing this on my bed on the second floor of my house. The ground level is not completely clean and still damp, but we are still working to clean it. It's an arduous, backbreaking job, but we have to do it anyhow. Hopefully next September I will be able to move to our other house and be free of this horrible cycle of flood of Jakarta. For your information, Jakarta is not the only city suffers from this flood. There are other small cities around Jakarta which were flooded: Bogor, Depok, Bekasi and Tangerang. I watched the news yesterday; some areas in Tangerang are still flooded until today, making it the 11th day since the first day they left their houses. There are many people died during the flood, and many died after the flood due the diseases that came after the disaster such as Diarrhea, Cholera, Leptospirosis, and Dengue Fever. I guess, although I lost so many things and had to empty our bank account and use our savings to replace what we had lost, I didn't lose the most valuable things in my life: My mother and my husband. And for that, I feel blessed. Once again thanks for your concern and moral support. Sending me more pictures of Oded, will definitely make my day. Love, Indie
