the flood, day 1: the north side of the city

Photo from epaper.kompas.com - Friday, 18 January 2013

So I live in the north side of Jakarta, which had not been flooded since as long as I could remember. But unfortunately this year, we could not avoid the tragedy. Half of the city has been flooded when I was about to leave to work that morning. I was warned not to. Too risky, the said. But I decided that it was an important day at work and I thought it couldn't be that bad.

I did arrive at work a bit late. I tried to get things done, but somehow I didn't feel like wanting to be there. I felt that my mind is wandering off somewhere else. I remember a breakfast where I made this joke about Jakarta being flooded and a birthday lunch among friends where I'm not sure whether I did something or even nothing.

So I'm sure you understand when one of the heads decided to leave and asked whether I wanted to go with her or not. Without any hesitation, I said yes.

I was dropped at Cawang, where I decided to continue to Muara Karang taking a cab. And instead taking the usual route, I went with the driver's suggestion taking the highway through Ancol. He was absolutely right, no flood. But I was trapped in the traffic jam for almost two hours. Half of Pluit was drowned. My cab fare nearly doubled the normal fare I paid, due to traffic and circling around Pantai Indah Kapuk just to figure a way home.

But then I was home. Never I be so happy to be home, although I was pretty sure it was the end of it.

But still, I'm home!

Continue to day 2.

the flood, day 2: no way out

Photos from many sources - a big thanks to my sister.

I'm sure if you are (were) a Blackberry Messenger user, you must have received at least one or two broadcast messages. I must say they can be terribly annoying. So on the night before, I received a BM saying that a bigger flood headed to Pluit due to the inability of the Pluit barrier to hold the water and as usual, I deleted them immediately with a big smirk. Friday morning, I thought maybe everything's getting better by now and maybe I could peacefully go to work. Oh boy, didn't I just get it all wrong?!

The two main exits from Pluit was flooded and literally I was (we were all) trapped. Hundreds of people waiting alongside big trucks, ambulance, fire department trucks exactly on the bridge separated Pluit from Muara Karang. Some of them were waiting for their family (in Pluit) to be rescued, some of them were just there sightseeing and I'm sure some of them were like me, thinking, "how am I going to get out of here?"

As I stood there looking a bit lost, not having any clue how to resolve the problem, random thoughts flashed by and they are: 

1. My boss' face the last time I saw her - she was asking this rhetoric question of that I shall be at work this morning. Oh no!
2. I might not be able to watch Les Miserables in the cinema. Oh double no!
3. Why is nobody freaking out? The flood's going to take forever to dry out.

Then I snapped back to reality. I decided to go back home. Although it's very unfortunate, but the truest truth is I'm truly very blessed. There are some parts of Pluit that suffered thousands times worse than me and to think I just moved to Muara Karang (read: the dry land) like just 6 months ago gave me chills.

And these kind heart people who have been helping people to evacuate, I applaud you. I guess if we're looking for today's super heroes, you guys must be it.

It rains again as I'm about to publish this post. God helps us all.