"As earlier predicted, floods will continue to intensify as we enter January. Rainy season in January has the potential to trigger floods and landslides," Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, a spokesman of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB), noted here on Tuesday.
The peak of the rainy season is forecast to occur in January until February and is likely to trigger floods and landslides, he claimed.
The flood-affected districts and cities include Malinau, Langkat, Kudus, Tegal, Demak, Rokan Hilir, Pandeglang, Semarang, Situbondo, Aceh Tamiang, Donggala, Labuan Batu Utara, Tebing Tinggi, Medan, Kupang, and Jayapura.
"Although there is no major flooding, thousands of houses have been inundated in the regions," he noted.
The Tebing Tinggi city in North Sumatra has been flooded on three occasions during the last two weeks following incessant torrential rains in Simalungun Districts upstream areas that triggered Padang and Bahilang rivers to overflow their banks.
"Flood waters reaching heights between 20 centimeters and 1.5 meters inundated the sub-districts of Padang Hulu, Bajenis, Tebing Tinggi, and Rambutan in Tebing Tinggi District," he stated.
The Tebing Tinggi disaster mitigation office (BPBD) has evacuated several flood victims and has distributed relief aid.
In Demak District, Central Java Province, several villages in Karangwetan sub-district were flooded after the Cabean River broke its embankment at Rejosari village, he stated.
Some 257 houses in Demak were submerged in flood waters, while the Grobogan Purwodadi-Semarang road was also inundated by flood waters scaling heights of up to 50 centimeters.
"The National Meteorological, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) has forecast very high-intensity rains in January 2015 to potentially occur in Central Javas northern coastal areas, western, and southern Banten, Aceh, South Sulawesi, Gorontalo, North Sulawesi, Papua and West Papua," he reported.
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Editor: Suryanto
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