Dam Bursts in Indonesia, Killing Dozens in Flood

The New York Times, PETER GELLING, March 27, 2009

A broken dam on the outskirts of Jakarta, Indonesia on Friday, March 27. Heavy rain caused the dam to burst, sending a wall of water and mud crashing through hundreds of houses. (Supri/Reuters)

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JAKARTA, Indonesia — Heavy rains caused a large dam in a crowded urban area on the outskirts of this city to burst early Friday morning, sending a deadly wall of water and mud crashing through hundreds of houses and killing at least 60 people, the police said.

The dam broke about 2 a.m., tearing through a low-lying valley and surprising residents in their sleep, witnesses said. Within minutes, several whole neighborhoods were engulfed by mud and water.

Rescue workers clawed through thick mud and dredged houses and roadways Friday afternoon looking for survivors. Hundreds of residents were being taken to a nearby university, where family members were searching through bodies for loved ones. The police said the death toll could be higher as more victims were found.

“They lived right here, but their house is destroyed,” Sobi Ahmansur, 62, said of her missing daughter and 5-month-old granddaughter. “I’m scared. I love them so much. I have to keep searching.”

Residents of the mostly middle-class university neighborhood described the disaster as similar to a tsunami — a wall of water almost 33 feet high crashed through the valley, they said, ripping up everything in its path.

“I woke up to the sound of my neighbors screaming for help,” said Jarko, 34, whose house was flooded up to his chest. “I ran out of the house, found my friends and ran for higher ground.”

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono; the vice president, Jusuf Kalla; and Aburizal Bakrie, the minister for people’s welfare, all visited the disaster area on Friday afternoon, speaking with rescue workers and residents. Mr. Kalla told reporters that the government would help relocate people who lost their houses.

The dam was built during Dutch colonial rule to contain water from the Pasanggrahan River. The authorities have long been concerned about the dozens of aging dams and levees in Jakarta, a city that regularly suffers from severe flooding in the rainy season.

Prolonged heavy rain on Thursday is thought to be responsible for causing the dam to finally give way, causing Situ Gintung, a nearly 50-acre lake, to flood the area.

“The dam will be rebuilt, and we will reconsider how it is constructed,” Mr. Yudhoyono told reporters on his visit to the scene.

The military cleared debris to help reduce the level of water, while rescue teams with long poles searched for victims in both the water and the mud into the evening on Friday. Other rescue workers searched through gutted houses, tossing aside debris in the hope of finding survivors.

A local leader, Nana Suharna, said that dozens were still missing in his neighborhood of 60 families, and that so far he had counted at least 70 people killed by the flood, though that number could not be confirmed by officials. The entire family of a local Islamic leader, who performed the call to prayer at 4:30 a.m. from high in a tree, were missing and presumed dead, Mr. Suharna said.

“The water came so fast and just kept getting higher and higher,” said Mr. Suharna, 48. “I am in charge of about 60 families here, and many of them are still missing.”

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