Sixth Day of Jakarta Flood Disaster Relief went well. The water went up quiet high the night before, affecting more areas. We are still cut off from our office (which is on 7th floor safe from water), and created the crisis center in my house in Ancol, North Jakarta. 1,000 ready-to-eat meals were distributed (McDonalds and donated rice boxes) as well as 260 bread; Water, instant noodles, blankets, clothes, candles, flashlights were also distributed. Areas covered were Sunter, Tanjung Priok, Ciledug, East Jakarta, Kelapa Gading.

One unit of “Vortex Voyager” portable water filter made the trip and was installed in Pulomas East Jakarta. The unit is capable of turning river water into mineral water at 2 liter per minute, providing an alternative drinking water up to 2,500 liter water per day.

We also assembled 200 “HOPE First Aid Kit” that contains over-the-counter medicines for families; this is necessary for small wounds, fever, vitamins, diarrhea, skin infections, and coughs. Half were distributed right away. The plan is to assembled up to 700-800 of these kits.

Yesterday 7 teams conducted SAR in Plumpang, Kelapa Gading, Sunter, East Jakarta, Bekasi 1,500 ready-to-eat meals were also distributed, mainly from McDonald’s and Breadbox.
Friday morning, Singapore Airline will transport 1,000 lbs of humanitarian aid for the flood victims. We look forward for the assistance.

Thank you for all the supports! Please keep the victims in your prayers as the risk has not decrease yet. We would not be surprised if the water will take up to 2 weeks to dry.

Public attitudes don’t help. According to the old standby, the ‘taxi driver’ poll, the floods are a ‘warning’ from the almighty to sinners and undilligent Muslims. (To be fair, they said the warning went for unfaithful Christians as well). Frighteningly, even some government scientists, if you get them at a quiet moment, will confess similar thoughts.

The President even held a cabinet meeting last year to discuss how to cope with a public perception the natural disasters were a warning from the celestial sphere.

Now the rains may have come from the heavens, but there’s a good chance the floods were created on a lower plane- by poor regulation and failure to build proper infrastructure. Thanks, Sutiyoso.

With more than 120 million people – and growing – on this island and little environmental scenario planning, this weekend’s chaos is a harbinger of things to come. With reptilian thugs like Sutiyoso in charge,calling for a little divine help might not be such a bad idea after all.

PS: You may want to take a look at photos of flooded Kelapa Gading that I took on Saturday. Everything is still pretty much flooded all around and it’s not possible to get into kelapa gading by car.