President orders ministers to help dam burst victims
The Jakarta Post , Cikampek | Fri, 03/27/2009 5:44 PM | National


President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has instructed Social Affairs Minister Bachtiar
Chamsyah and Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari to help victims of a flash flood caused by the bursting of Situ Gintung Dam at Cirendeu, Tangerang, southeast of Jakarta.

"I have asked the social affairs minister and the health minister to do whatever the government can do to help the flood victims," the president told the press at Km 62 of Cikampek toll road, on his way from Bandung to Serang on Friday as quoted by Antara state news agency.

Yudhoyono is actually on leave to campaign for the Democratic Party in his capacity as chairman of the party's advisory board.

Bu, he decided to halt his campaign and visit the location of the disaster in his capacity as head of state.

He said he had communicated with Vice President Jusuf Kalla and Coordinating Minister for the People's Welfare Aburizal Bakrie who were already at the disaster's location to take immediate steps to deal with the Situ Gintung emergency.

"On behalf of the government, I express my condolences to the families of the dead victims and may their souls be accepted by God Almighty," Yudhoyono said.

The head of state said he needed to be at the location of the disaster to personally give technical directives to Tangerang authorities on how to deal with the negative impact of the flash flood.

According to data collected from several emergency command posts in the disaster area, at least 35 people were killed and some others missing in the disaster.

The burst following heavy rain on Thursday night had obliterated a 255-meter-long section of the dam allowing water from its 20-hectare lake to rush out and inundate hundreds of houses in its immediate proximity.

The burst occurred at around 2 am local time, Friday, and the first volumes of water that it unleashed swept away tens of houses and a number of people.

Search and rescue officers were trying to rescue residents who were trapped in their submerged houses. The survivors were evacuated to higher ground near the University of Muhammadiyah Jakarta (UMJ) campus.

The floodwaters still reached a height of one to two meters late Friday morning.

Some survivors said the disaster reminded them of a deadly tsunami which devastated Aceh Province and Nias Island on December 26, 2004.

They said they had heard loud rumbling sounds like during a powerful earthquake. They later found out that the sounds came from the water rushing out from the dam's lake.