Monday, October 25, 2010

River of Dreams...aka the Great Flood of Kemang

Today's artist of the day was Billy Joel and his album-titled song currently describes one of the major roads between Mentari and home. It started pouring around 3pm and rained harder for a sustained period of time that I've seen since I've been here. The torrent continued until close to 5pm when it tapered off to a constant drizzle. It was well after 7 before the rain stopped completely and consequently there was flash flooding throughout Jakarta and parts of Kemang are especially vulnerable to flash floods. Word from those out and about (thank goodness for after school tutoring and thus staying at school instead of trying to wade my way home!) is that the water was waist high on Kemang Raya (a major road on my commute). Fortunately the home stay is on the top of a hill and so I'm fairly confident that things are okay back home, but I'm still camped out at school until I hear the water has receded enough to make it back. This will certainly be an experience I will never forget because of 1) the impressiveness in how hard it is possible for it to rain (it redefined what it meant for me to see rain coming down in sheets) 2) the effect water can have in an urban setting and 3) the rapid return of a city to normalcy (or at least receded water and people continuing on) after such an impressive natural event! I honestly cannot get over the shear quantity of water that came down and am beyond impressed that the grounds of the school are pretty much back to "normal."

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