Medan hit by large flood, thousands forced to flee

Friday, January 07, 2011 14:24 PM



Thousands of houses in parts of Medan, North Sumatra, were submerged by floodwaters of up to 2 meters deep Thursday after three rivers in the city overflowed their banks following heavy rain.

The Deli, Babura and Belawan rivers began to flood at 1 a.m. Thursday and by 1:30 p.m. there were no signs that of the water level subsiding.

There were no reports of fatalities, but infrastructure, including two embankments and one bridge, were destroyed.

The inundation paralyzed parts of the city, with severe traffic congestion along most of Jl. Brig. Jen. Katamso.

Police rerouted traffic to Jl. Sisingamangaraja to avoid the flood.

The congestion was made worse by large numbers of evacuees crowding the sidewalks in the hundreds. Most affected residents moved to higher ground.

Maimoon district head Said Reja said the flood displaced nearly 1,100 families in the district. The flood forced many to flee without their valuables.

Reja said the worst affected areas were Kampung Aur and Sei Mati.

He added that the evacuees were being housed in 18 shelters in six villages.

Some of the evacuees confirmed they could not save their belongings as the flood hit very quickly.

Hermina, a resident of Kampung Aur, said that when water from a nearby river started to enter her house, all the members of her family were sleep. She said she realized the water entered her house when she awoke at 3 a.m.

“I was shocked, the water was up to my knees. I immediately woke up my family and we ran,” she said, adding that she fled with her husband and two children.

However, other residents could not flee and were forced to take shelter in the upper floors of their houses.

In the Flamboyan and Nusa Indah residential neighborhoods, hundreds of people were stranded on their roofs for hours.

Evacuation and rescue efforts were stalled by a lack of equipment and poor coordination.

In Padang Bulan, a pregnant woman was forced to deliver her baby while stranded on her roof, as help was late in arriving.

K. Sinaga from the Medan Search and Rescue Agency blamed the difficulties in coordinating assistance for flood victims on the lack of equipment.

(Most certainly no happy New Year for those folks either)