Jakarta is Paralyzed

Hello. Four days until school start and I'm worried I'd be stuck in Jakarta. It's rainy season in Indonesia. Rain is good, really. I love rain. But it seems like rain doesn't love... my city. (Rain loves me since there's no floods anywhere around my house)

Heavy rain started pouring down since last week. But the peak is today. The rain started falling at around 4 am in the morning (WIB) and it's already a heavy one from the start. I just slept by 1 am and at around 4, when the rain started, I got awaken by the water splash... Yes, rainwater splash. The platform of my room got leaked so the rainwater sipped through it... Confused, I could only grab a plastic medium-sized ware and went to the living room and continued my sleep in the sofa. Few hours later, I woke up, checked my room and it turned out that my nanny replaced the plastic ware with two huge plastic buckets, and one of them were already half-filled! Wow! If she didn't put them there, by noon my room would be flooded.

At around 6 am, I've already awaken. The rain's still falling, the thunder's no joke. My nanny and driver accompanied my brother to school, so I was alone. But I was still veeeery sleepy so I slept again in the sofa. And then one hour later, my nanny woke me up and half-telling-half-scolding me that my parent's room's platform also got leaked. She thought I was sleeping there, and because it's leaked I moved to the sofa, so she scolded me because I didn't put anything to patch the rainwater. But I didn't know! So it turned out that the rain was falling even heavier... and if she didn't put a huge plastic bucket there, my room's parent would definitely be flooded too.

This morning was so cold. Like, really really cold. It's as cold as Bandung! At 11 am, it looked like it's 6 pm outside. The rain kept falling and truthfully I was worried there would be another blackout. I hate blackout. So I watched the news, and... wow. Floods everywhere. Like, everywhere. I cannot describe in words how awful the situations are, so here are the pictures. I'm very sorry for my beloved city, Jakarta.

Bunderan HI. Kinda scary isn't it... (source)

Jl. Gatot Subroto (source)

Istana Negara. Even our President and Minister had to roll their trousers up. (source)

It's a ROLLS ROYCE guys. Don't know where it is, but it's definitely a lesson for all luxury cars owners. (source)

There are a lot more pictures of today's floods. Some are funny, like, really funny because some people were enjoying the floods (like these two foreigners who's willing to pay $20 for kids rubber rings), some are shocking because the flooding is no joke (like this mini tsunami in UOB Plaza's basement), and some are tragic and sad... because this floods is truly a major disaster for a lot of families. For another updates and pictures, you can go to Kartu Pos twitter account (@KartuPos) and this blog (someone compiles the floods pictures here) Jakarta Bocor (jakartabocor.tumblr.com). I took the pictures above from these sources.

I live in West Jakarta. The area around my house residence is not affected very much, there's no floods. But, most of the the protocol roads near my house are badly flooded. Jl. S. Parman, Kebon Jeruk highway, Jl. Thamrin... It's so sad looking at the pictures because it looks like they're no longer roads, they're more like dirty pools. Not to mention the condition in some schools and universities in Jakarta. Trisakti University, Tarumanegara University, Atma Jaya University, SMAN 8, SMAN 60... they're more like dirty lakes right now. Floods is not something new for Jakartans. In fact, there is this massive-flood-cycle-every-five-years thing in Jakarta. It's not something new, so that's why we're damned tired of it. How can you live in Jakarta, in every rainy season, without having the fear of your house being flooded? Floods in the house is one thing, but you can't go anywhere because the roads are blocked due to the floods is another thing. And it's not only the floods that is being worried about. The aftermath...? If the victims of floods are not being treated well, they could get some diseases, and that make things getting worse. The victims now need help. From foods, clean water, clothes, medicines, blankets, and anything else. One of many ways to help, you can donate via this site http://bantujakarta.sinergimuda.org/. Any kind of donation is helpful! 

This city needs some changes. Changes from every single Jakarta citizens. Don't make it as one man's responsibility: the governor (or two, with the vice governor). How can some people just straightly put the blame on them? It's better to see them as our partners so together, we can think of ways to handle and prevent this. Truthfully, I like Jokowi and Ahok. I have so much respect for them, although honestly I kinda doubted them previously... since Jokowi is not Jakarta citizen, originally. But they proved me wrong. I'm glad that so far they've done many good things (like the new year eve's festive, public hearing about the 6-new-highways plan.. I mean, have we ever had one kind of public hearing?! Because I haven't heard any other than this. Someone could enlighten me?). And I hope they can do better in handling this lovely but problematic city.

Jakarta's governor, Jokowi, stated that Jakarta is under emergency status following this massive floods until January 27th. It's not raining now. The rain has stopped, the floods are lessened gradually... But we need to be ready every time. We're all hoping that there wouldn't be any heavy rain later tonight since the situation is not stable yet. Amin.