Floods Inundate Three Villages in Pekalongan

The affected villages were Bener located in Wiradesa Sub-district, and Tegaldowo as well as Jeruksari villages in Tirto Sub-district, head of the Pekalongan disaster mitigation office (BPBD) Bambang Sujatmiko stated here on Monday.

The floodwaters, reaching a height of up to 40 centimeters, also inundated several schools and prevented the local inhabitants from conducting their routine daily activities, 30-year-old local resident Muhammad stated.

In the meantime, floods had also inundated four villages in Kota Baru Sub-district, Ende District, East Nusa Tenggara Province, over the weekend.

Several homes and public infrastructure were damaged in the flooding, which also affected the local cattle.

The floods were triggered by incessant heavy rains that had fallen in Kota Baru since Saturday (Jan. 30).

The local authorities have dispatched relief aid and collected data on the damage and material losses inflicted by the natural disaster.

Based on information from the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG), almost 90 percent of Indonesia will experience heavy rains and strong winds that could continue until the second week of February.

Some 63.7 million people in Indonesia are currently living in flood prone areas. Of this number, 40.9 million people are living in areas prone to landslides, according to information from the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB).

As the country is still grappling with the impacts of El Nino, the BMKG recently announced that another natural phenomenon called La Nina, which is the opposite of El Nino and usually triggers a heavy rainy season in Indonesia, is forecast to begin in September 2016.