And rains in the mountains came only too soon. On Saturday morning the red alarm went up: the Katulampa dam in the Ciliwung river above the town of Bogor, which is the main indicator to floods in Jakarta, had risen more than 1 meter above its normal level, with waters  rushing at alarming speed.

So weathermen warned that Jakarta could expect to be flooded within 12 hours. People rushed to shop for groceries, practically cleaning up supermarkets to stock on dry foods and drinking water. Others rushed to hardware stores to buy up generators, emergency lights, batteries, cleaning tools. While other members of households rushed home to carry upstairs Televisions, electronic goods, books, carpets, and other valuables, in the hope that floods would not reach the second floor. Therefore, most thought that they were prepared for the worst.  

But, when the floods did reach the city, waters rose as high as five meters in some places.   No one expected electric power to be cut off for days, nor telephone lines and mobile phones unworkable for a week. For, with so much water bearing down on the capital, authorities had decided to open the central flood gates at Manggarai to avoid floods washing over wider areas. The Manggarai flood gates in Central Jakarta are crucial, since once opened, waters will flood the Presidential Palace and the central part of the city. Which it did indeed. Jakarta’s main arterial roads of Thamrin and Sudirman, Kuningan, Casablanca, Gatot Subroto, and the elite Menteng residential area, that had never before been flooded, found themselves suddenly knee-deep in water. In front of the BNI headquarters, flood waters came up as high as the traffic lights. And so for a few days large parts of Jakarta became completely paralyzed.
 

A man lifting his basket full of stuff in the middle of the flood

The floods, apparently also washed the exchange of PT Telkom, center for communications, that included the exchange for mobile and internet servers, which, when flooded went completely dead. Deputy President Director of Telkom said that it would take at least two days of cleaning and drying after the floods recede – and when that would be, was anyone’s guess. Soon the main exchange at PLN, the National Electricity company at Merdeka Selatan also became flooded, and thousands of homes were left in the dark for days. Other electricity stations across Jakarta were similarly inundated, leaving altogether some 1 million inhabitants without electricity, while power at flooded areas was immediately shut off , to reduce risks of electrocution.  

At the end of five days of flooding, Jakarta Governor admitted that 70 percent of the city was under water, with some 64 fatalities, counting in the neighbouring districts of Tangerang, Bogor, Depok and Bekasi. A number had died from electrocution, others from the cold, and a number were swept by currents. Some half a million people were in evacuation or had gone to upper floors or even climbed onto roofs. Some in inaccessible places had to do without water and food for days.

The industry and exports also suffered. One photograph showed rows and rows of newly built cars parked on a site ready for exports, the cars completely submerged to their roofs. Trucks on their way to the Tanjung Priok harbour to waiting ships, lined up the roads for kilometers, unable to wade through.  

This was the dismal picture that was Jakarta at the first week of February.