Some of the damaged vehicles were found at Raden Saleh and Pattimura roads.Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Fourteen cars got damaged after being hit by toppled trees following torrential rains and strong winds that hit Indonesia`s capital city, Jakarta, on Wednesday.
Some of the damaged vehicles were found at Raden Saleh and Pattimura roads, said Sarum, a local resident.
Sarum, a street vendor, said the trees that the strong winds toppled at 01.30 PM local time were generally old.
"The toppled trees hit three cars which happened to pass the streets and eleven other cars parked in the area," he said.
Meanwhile, Asep, driver of a Grand Livina van, said he and his two passengers escaped unhurt when a tree fell on their car which was seriously damaged.
"I just passed through an access road to Pattimura road. Inside the car were me, my employer and her daughter. But, we were all safe," he said.
The toppled tree hit Asep`s car and damaged the back part of the ill-fated van, he said.
Shortly after the rainfall and strong wind ended, a number of Jakarta city workers cleaned broken trunks of the toppled trees from the roads, he said.
Over the past year, Indonesia has been undergoing an extreme weather phenomenon, which partly characterizes with heavy rains and whirlwinds.
As the consequences of the torrential rains and whirlwinds, various vulnerable parts of the country have experienced flash floods and landslides.
On December 28, 2010, a landslide, for instance, ripped off the front porch of a house taking it along down the slope of a five-meter hill following heavy rain in the Gua Maria cave area in Delik village, Semarang, Central Java.
In January 2011, the extreme weather conditions that had triggered high waves in the Sunda Strait had even caused several hundred trucks stranded in Banten province over the past few days.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
