Hundreds of people scrambled to the second floors of their houses to escape the rising waters. Some found themselves trapped, while others refused to leave despite warnings that the muddy floodwaters — running over 13 feet deep in places — might rise more in the coming days.
“Jakarta is now on the highest alert level,” said Sihar Simanjuntak, an official who monitors the many rivers that crisscross this city of 12 million people. “The floods are getting worse.”
Indonesia’s meteorological agency is forecasting two weeks of rain.
Boats ferried supplies to desperate residents, and the government dispatched medical teams on rubber rafts into the worst-hit districts to prevent outbreaks of disease among residents without clean drinking water.
Edi Darma, an official at the Flood Crisis Center here, said 20 people had died in the city and surrounding towns as of late Sunday, most either by drowning or electrocution.
Survivors told of being stranded by the surging waters. “We were starving
for two days,” said Sri Hatyati, who was rescued from her house on the
city’s western outskirts on Sunday by soldiers on a dinghy.