47 Villages Submerged By Floods, Bekasi Regency Responds To Disasters

The flood submerged Villa Kencana Cikarang Housing, Karang Bahagia District, Bekasi Regency, West Java. (ANTARA/Pradita Kurniawan Syah).

JABAR - The Bekasi Regency Government (Pemkab) has set a flood emergency response status until March 12. The determination follows the spread of flooding up to 117 points in 47 villages spread across 17 sub-districts.

"I have declared an emergency response status, meaning that it has increased the status of the previous one. So, not alert 1, now it has increased to an emergency response," said Bekasi Regent Dani Ramdan in Cikarang, Bekasi Regency, Tuesday, February 28, as reported by Antara.

Dani said that this status determination made all regional apparatus deployed to help disaster management. Unexpected Fee budget allocations (BTT) have also begun to be channeled to the operations and assistance of affected residents.

As is known, since last weekend Bekasi Regency has been hit by floods.

In addition, landslides also occurred at one point, namely in South Cikarang District. At least 54,840 residents were affected and 4,092 residents were forced to evacuate.

Due to this condition, the emergency response status was also activated based on the Bekasi Regent's Decree Number HK.02.02/Kep-227-BPBD/2023 concerning the Emergency Response Status of Hydrometerological Disasters in Bekasi Regency in 2023.

Furthermore, Dani said the flood occurred because it is currently entering the peak of the rainy season. Almost all day it rains in Bekasi Regency. This condition caused the river discharge to increase until it overflowed and submerged residential areas.

Dani said that for areas that were flooded, there was no other choice but to evacuate themselves and their families. "Know the route for evacuation first to save yourself. Then, save other valuables that can be saved," he said.

He admitted that there is a potential for flooding to spread, marked by the high intensity of rain. He appealed to residents who were not affected by the flood to immediately clean up clogged waterways considering that several flood points were caused by waterways that were clogged with garbage.

"For areas that are outside the flood and can still be possible, people work together to repair waterways first, clean waterways so they are not clogged," he said.