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An overflow from the Ciujung River that inundated a stretch of the Tangerang-Merak toll road with up to two meters of water on the weekend finally receded enough to render the highway passable again late on Sunday.

Azis Ariwibowo, operational manager of toll road operator Marga Mandala Sakti, said on Monday that the floodwaters that had cut off the road between the 57- and 58-kilometer marks only began receding late on Sunday afternoon.

“As of 9 p.m. on Sunday, the highway was passable again, although there were some puddles around the 50-kilometer mark,” he said. “We’ve taken a look at the affected area and the road conditions look normal with no serious damage.”

On Monday, the hundreds of villagers who had camped out on the toll road for two days after their homes were inundated in the flash flood were relocated to temporary shelters. Three people were reportedly killed in the flooding.

Rury Purwantoko, the MMS corporate planning manager, said the operator had set up shelters near the 42- and 45-kilomter marks of the road and were supplying the evacuees with clean water, food and emergency tents. Additional supplies have also come in from the South Tangerang branch of the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI).

Rury added that there was still a large concentration of people camped out at the 45-kilometer mark but that they were gradually being moved.

Syamlawi, one of those who fled to the toll road over the weekend, said she was able to return with her family to their home in Undarandir village, Serang, after floodwaters there receded.

“We still need clean water and medicine because a lot of people have fallen sick and there’s a shortage of drinking water,” she said.

Andi Zaenal Abidin Dulung, the Social Affairs Ministry’s director general of security and protection, said the distribution of relief supplies would be handled by the Banten provincial administration.

He added that the supplies, including rubber dinghies and ready-to-eat meals, would be sent out from the ministry’s buffer stock today.

He said that as a long-term measure, a volunteer youth group would work with the police and military to shore up the levees along the Ciujung River to prevent future flooding.

Rury said MMS was also taking steps to lessen the impact of future flooding, by piling up sandbags along the worst-hit sections.

“This is only a temporary measure, but if we have flash floods on the scale that we saw over the weekend, sandbags alone won’t be enough to hold back the waters,” he said.

Separately, the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) said five cities and districts in Banten, including Serang and Tangerang, were among the 14 regions nationwide hit by heavy flooding in recent days. Other affected areas were in East Java, West Kalimantan and East Kalimantan.

Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, a BNPB spokesman, said that in the Banten floods, almost 14,000 homes in some 97 villages had been affected.

Antara