Floods in Jakarta

Well after 2 months of threatening the city with floods of near biblical proportions it finally happened. The city has in some places been flooding in areas since Christmas but this week with a high tide from the north,  heavy rains in the mountains in the south and torrential rain in the city, Jakarta in places finally became overloaded and the place flooded and ground to a standstill. It should be noted that this happens pretty much every year, and more than once. However, it being the rainy season the expectation is that the rain is worse, the floods bigger and the chaos more than the rest of the year and this year for some it has been.

The rains started over the weekend and on the Monday I had to be at school by 6am to go into the city for my school classes. It rained all the way from home to EF and then carried on into the morning at St.Ursula. There was a power cut for a while and then after around 9am the rain began to fall at a rate which you realise is going cause problems for people.
At 11am, parents were picking up there children from the school to get them home and the school itself started to flood. By 12 noon, my classes were cancelled and I was free to go (where?) back to EF for the day. Happily I work with another teacher whose classes were also cancelled so we waded out of the school without shoes and socks to Dunkin Doughnuts to wait for the driver who did arrive around 1.5 hours later. While waiting we watched the rain and floods rise.

My bike in the rain

The gloomy skies out side my school at 6am

St.Ursula in the rain

The floods starting inside the school

Leaving the school

The floods outside the school

Getting Deeper

The trip to EF was on clear roads but I had 3 teachers unable to come into the school on the Monday due to the weather. On the way home from EF I encountered the biggest floods I have ridden through ever and that was exciting but happily I made it. It was hard to do as the water was higher than my front wheel. But other than that, the traffic was very light.

The view from one my teachers houses

One of my teachers took this while trying to get to EF

Another view

The rain calmed down on Tuesday and I only had 2 teachers absent due to floods but they returned on Wednesday. The city itself got back to normal from Tuesday night and since then there has been no real heavy rain but there are many people claiming the rain will return this weekend or in the next week or so.  Lets see.

This was a 1km away from where I work

The city itself was stuck. The buses, trains and taxis stopped running. Large parts of the city was under 50-80cm of water and these are government areas, business areas as well as residential areas. Still it happens every year and every year nothing really changes, it just continues to rain and the floods come and go.

And some endearing photos of why I like Jakarta. People never give up.

From voanews,com

from floodlist.com

from thewatchers.adorraeli.com