Heavy Rain And Strong Winds, Fallen Trees In Three East Jakarta Districts Fall On Vehicles And Retail Gasoline Kiosks

Officers evacuating fallen trees in East Jakarta Area/Photo: IST

JAKARTA - Heavy rains with strong winds that hit the East Jakarta area caused trees in three areas of Pulogadung District, Pasar Rebo District, and Duren Sawit District to fall.

One tree on Pulomas Raya Street, Kayu Putih Village, Pulogadung District, was reported to have fallen and partially closed the access road for motorists.

Head of the Ops Section of the East Jakarta Fire and Rescue (Gulkarmat) Sub-dept., Gatot Sulaeman, said the tree was a cypress with a height of about six meters.

"The diameter of the tree is about 30 centimeters. After receiving the report, we immediately dispatched a light rescue unit and six personnel to the location," said Gatot, Wednesday, January 12, evening.

Officers evacuating fallen trees in East Jakarta Area/Photo: IST

Using a chainsaw and evacuation equipment, six officers from the East Jakarta Gulkarmat Sub-dept. cut the fallen tree trunk.

The tree trunk was cut into a number of small pieces to facilitate evacuation, this evacuation process was also assisted by a number of personnel for handling public infrastructure and facilities (PPSU).

"Alhamdulillah, there were no casualties and material losses due to fallen trees. There were no problems with the evacuation," said Gatot.

Furthermore, Gatot said, his party received another report that a tree had fallen on Kalisari Raya Street, Kalisari Village, Pasar Rebo District. The location of the fallen tree is precisely in front of Budiwarman Vocational School.

There were no fatalities, but a retail petrol kiosk near the scene was hit by a Glodokan tree trunk with a height of about 20 meters and a diameter of 60 centimeters.

"We have deployed one light rescue unit and five personnel to evacuate. The material loss is around Rp50 million," he said.

Furthermore, it was reported that a Petai Selong tree in the Pondok Kelapa sub-district, Duren Sawit sub-district also fell on a car and a motorbike.

According to Umi, one of the eyewitnesses said, the tree as high as about eight meters and 60 centimeters in diameter fell because it was affected by heavy rain and the accompanying wind.

"The motorbike and the car that were hit were parked near the location when the incident happened. But the damage wasn't too bad, it was just a branch," he said.