Sunday, February 4, 2007

flood


Jakarta is flooded. Badly.

My in-laws' house is flooded up to an adult's thigh and they spent the almost the whole of Friday in the car trapped in a very bad traffic jam on their way to a relative's house. My father and almost everyone else could not work on Friday. My husband went to work in the morning, but went home shortly after because the water level was rising everywhere.

There were thousands that lost their homes, stranded with wet clothes and no food on the rooftops. Some lost their family members in the flood. Today, most of them started to get sick. Thousands of people also trapped in their houses with no clean water and electricity since Friday. The clean water and electricity were cut off in the flooded area to prevent water pollution and possible short disaster. Today, my sister-in-law and her family moved to stay in a nearby hotel. With two children under three, it was a wise precaution.

These past three days, watching the news about the flood gave me weird kind of feelings. I'm thankful that all of us are alive and healthy, can live well with clean water, electricity, and enough food. I'm horrified and sad knowing about those poor people losing their homes and cars and belongings. My heart's gone to pieces looking at those sick children and babies in the measly shelters. But I'm also slightly glad that my husband is at home and not working.

For precaution, we're staying in my parents' place again. My sister just got an sms tonight, informing that her lab session was canceled and those who has found the required kutu beras (rice flea or rice bug?) for the experiment, should try to keep them alive till next week.

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