Ikram Putra and Mustaqim Adamrah, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta, Depok
A special flood mitigation team says the community has a major role to play in lessening the impact of flooding in the city.
"People must learn where they should keep their valuables, or where they should evacuate when flooding does occur," the institutional communications specialist of the Netherlands-based Jakarta Flood Team, Darismanto, said Thursday.
"People need to play an active role in mitigating floods. They must also know children's safety comes first before they save others," he said.
The team met with administration officials at City Hall to discuss strategies for curbing flood risks.
An engineer with the team, R. Van Nes, said the administration needed to work on getting out early flood warnings to residents.
"The administration should tell the people to prepare medicines, drinks and clean water in advance," he said. "They may already know about this but we need to remind them."
He also warned of future tides higher than the ones on Nov. 26 that resulted in major flooding in North Jakarta.
Jakarta's crisis center also warned that Penjaringan and Pluit subdistricts in North Jakarta would be threatened by high tides between Dec. 8 and 12, and Dec. 20 and 25.
The administration can also help reduce the impact of floods by revitalizing water catchment areas and waterways in the city, said Van Nes.
The administration, he said, can simply clean the rivers of waste to restore their functions.
"Such efforts may overcome half of the flood problems," he said.
He said the administration should also cooperate with neighboring administrations in Greater Jakarta and with the central government.
Governor Fauzi Bowo has met with the governor of neighboring Banten, Ratu Atut Chosiyah, to try and put together a plan on revitalizing water catchment areas along the border between the two provinces.
The Jakarta administration granted Banten Rp 5 billion (US$537.63 million) for the joint plan.
Fauzi also has met with Depok Mayor Nur Mahmudi Ismail to assemble a team tasked with tackling a number of common issues, including floods.
"The team will give suggestions on issues involving both administrations," Fauzi said Wednesday.
He said both Depok and Jakarta faced similar issues like floods and traffic congestion that needed to be addressed through cooperation between the administrations.
"I've learned Depok has numerous water catchment areas that could help us mitigated floods in Jakarta," said Fauzi.
"It would be great, I can say, if we could make the water heading to Jakarta run slower."
Mayor Nur said his administration had asked for Rp 300 billion from the central government to revitalize 30 man-made lakes in Depok.
"We're also planning to build a small dam on Ciliwung River to catch more water. But the available budget will depend on the central government," he said.
Located 70 meters above sea level, Depok is the last gateway for the Ciliwung River before its water enters Jakarta through the Pesanggrahan River.
Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan
The Polonia airport authority in Medan, North Sumatra, announced Sunday it would continue to serve passengers after a fire the previous day destroyed the domestic terminal.
The fire started about 8:45 p.m. and swept through the entire terminal. No deaths have been reported, but one firefighter sustained serious injuries while battling the blaze.
The decision to continue with services was made during a closed-door meeting led by North Sumatra Governor Rudolf Pardede early Sunday morning.
Rudolf said domestic flight departure services would be moved to the nearby Air Force base, Polonia airport's VIP room and the Medan office of national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia.
Acting head state-owned Angkasa Pura II, which manages Polonia airport, Poniran M. Abdi, said services for domestic flights had to be transferred from the gutted terminal to other sites.
"Under the current emergency conditions, we hope all passengers who already bought tickets can be accommodated even though there are lots of schedule changes," Poniran told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.
There was confusion among passengers Sunday as they waited, often for hours, to be told their departure time and location.
Syaukani, a passenger from Aceh, said he had already been waiting for more than two hours in front of the Polonia VIP room, but still there was no assurance as to when he would fly.
"I'm tired and disappointed, but I can't do anything because this is an emergency situation. I hope the government will deal with it as soon as possible," he said.
Governor Rudolf said it would take more than three months to repair the damage to the domestic terminal.
At least 18 fire engines were deployed to the scene, but firefighters had trouble dealing with the blaze because a number of hydrants were not working.
Deputy head of the North Sumatra Police criminal division, Adj. Sr. Comr. Darmawan Sutawijaya, said that based on preliminary investigations the fire was believed to have been started by an exploding voltage regulator.
Several witnesses said they heard an explosion and saw a blaze in a corridor between the transit lounge and the Garuda Indonesia customer service room, on the second floor of the terminal.
Darmawan said six forensic officers from the National Police in Jakarta were in Medan and helping to determine the cause of the fire.
He said there was a problem with a voltage regulator at the airport three months ago, but did not provide details.
Officials estimate Saturday's fire caused billions of rupiah worth of damage.
JAKARTA (Jakarta Post): Flights were delayed, thousands of passengers were left stranded and the toll road to and from the airport was impassable as floodwaters from the sea off North Jakarta inundated parts of the city Monday.
An ignored warning of a cyclical high tide and a neglected sea barrier, which broke over a week ago, contributed to the congestion and confusion at the Soekarno-Hatta international airport.
Floodwaters submerged Pluit and Penjaringan subdistricts, disrupting traffic and forcing residents to flee their homes in North Jakarta's coastal areas.
Traffic was paralyzed with congestion stretching from the Soekarno-Hatta tollgate to Slipi in Central Jakarta at around 8 p.m. (Adisti Sukma Sawitri)
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
A minibus carrying several children was trapped between vehicles after a multi-car crash on Wednesday, but the bus driver was able to break a window and lead the children to safety.
There were no casualties in the "accident" in Cilandak, South Jakarta, as it was only part of a bus emergency drill conducted by the Blue Bird Group to train its drivers to deal with such situations.
At least 27 drivers and chaperones were involved in the drill, which was meant to improve passenger safety, according to the group's president director, Purnomo Prawiro.
"There's a lot of bus safety measures, such as breaking bus windows using a hammer and putting out a blaze using a fire extinguisher," he said during the event, which was organized in cooperation with the Jakarta International School.
"All of our drivers (who work) at this school are able to perform bus safety measures because they're responsible for the lives of small children," Purnomo said.
Drivers were drilled in a number of bus safety measures, including exiting a bus through the emergency roof, escaping from a trapped bus by breaking a window, performing first aid and using a fire extinguisher to put out a fire on the vehicle.
"Without the drill, perhaps the bus drivers wouldn't know they have to use a sharp object to break the bus window," Purnomo said.
The head of Jakarta International School, David Cramer, said these kinds of drills gave the school confidence the drivers were well trained and the children safe.
"As far as I know, there haven't been any accidents so far in this school," he said.
A bus driver, Sapto Riawan, said the drill was useful not only for work.
"I was in a public bus when a passenger fainted. Some passengers thought he had died, however I decided to perform first aid.
"I was glad when he regained consciousness. Some people thought I was a doctor," he said. (adt)
Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
As a city that seems to have more than its fair share of disasters, Jakarta has joined an international association of cities that will work together to mitigate their effects in the future.
In the last few years, Indonesia has seen floods, earthquakes and bomb blasts in both urban and rural areas. A disaster in a densely populated city requires a different reaction to one in a remote village.
"Each city is unique. However, major cities around the world share a lot of similarities. They face more or less the same problems," Mikiko Yoshimura, the director for International Joint Projects at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, told The Jakarta Post recently.
She said Jakarta had more in common with Bangkok than with a neighboring Indonesian city.
"Most capitals share problems like water, transportation, health and environment," Yoshimura said.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government in 2000 led the foundation of the Asian Network of Major Cities 21 (ANMC21). So far, 11 cities are members: Bangkok, Delhi, Hanoi, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Seoul, Singapore, Taipei, Tokyo and Yangon.
"The objective of this network is to share knowledge and experiences concerning common practical problems. We don't touch political problems," Yoshimura said.
So far the ANMC21 has established 12 joint projects ranging from the development of a small passenger jet for traveling throughout the region to the Asian Performing Art Festival.
"The most popular are the Network for Crisis Management and the Countermeasures to Combat Infectious Diseases in Asia," said Yoshimura.
During the last week of October, Jakarta played host to the 5th Conference of the Network for Crisis Management. This year's annual conference focused on managing and mitigating disasters like fires, earthquakes and floods.
The city presentations showed the different problems faced by each city: Kuala Lumpur spoke about the possible explosion of a nearby oil plant, while Seoul focused on the potential for a similar accident at a nuclear plant.
Yoshimura believed that a conference providing a forum to share experiences was useful even for a more developed city like Tokyo.
"We learned a lot from Taipei about dealing with SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome). We draw inspiration to combat our own threat of infectious diseases. HIV/AIDS, for example, is a threat in Tokyo," she said.
Therefore, she said, she believed such crisis management conferences would be useful for other cities as well, including Jakarta.
"I heard Jakarta has a crisis center for floods now? I won't claim that it is because of ANMC21. But some Jakarta officials visited our crisis center in Tokyo. Surely they got some ideas for developing their center," Yoshimura said.
Separately, the chairman of the Earthquake and Megacities Initiative (EMI), Fouad Bendimerad, said that he believed cooperation between cities was important in reducing risk.
EMI's staff have visited Jakarta City Hall several times to help develop a framework for their Disaster Reduction Management Plan. The plan covers the overall strategy, approach and action for long term disaster risk reduction in Jakarta.
JAKARTA (The Jakarta Post): The East Jakarta municipality civilian police unit and dozens of Cipinang Melayu subdistrict residents took part in a flood drill on Saturday.
The drill included evacuation training and arresting looters who were robbing flooded houses, news portal Detik reported.
In the evacuation training, which was observed by Deputy Governor Prijanto, a team of the National Search and Rescue Agency workers saved flood victims and led them to a nearby refugee camp.
The team also used three dinghies in the drill to save trapped residents on the Kalimalang riverbank.
For the mock arrest, municipal guards moved to capture 11 looters who were raiding empty houses. The guards escorted them to a local police station
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Despite warnings of possible imminent major flooding from the Meteorology and Geophysics Bureau (BMG), few subdistrict administrations have prepared contingency plans or warned residents of the danger.
Authorities in flood-prone Manggarai in South Jakarta said they had yet to intensify activities in anticipation of the floods.
"One of our dinghies is currently being repaired so we only have one that works," head of the subdistrict youth organization Karang Taruna, Boedi Vincent, said.
Karang Taruna organized members to help residents during Jakarta's last major floods.
"We have not done much to prepare yet," another member of the organization, Budi, said, "but I think we will hold a meeting about it soon."
Sumini who has lived on Jl. Manggarai Utara I since 1981, several hundred meters from Karang Taruna's office, said she was not aware of imminent flooding.
She said no one had warned her before the previous floods, nor had she received any help from district officials in the aftermath.
The last major floods in early February this year inundated 70 percent of the city and claimed the lives of 48 people.
Roni, a resident of Bukit Duri in South Jakarta, which was heavily affected in the same floods, said he was not given any warnings.
"Residents usually observe the height of the Ciliwung River early in the year when floods usually occur. I don't think people have done this yet because we have never seen floods at the end of the year," Roni, whose two-story house was submerged in February's floods, said.
"We usually start (monitoring the river) in December to for the next year's floods which usually come either in January or February ... the height of Ciliwung River is normal now," a flood emergency worker in Bukit Duri, Suryanto, said.
Haryoko, a flood emergency worker in Cipinang, East Jakarta, said he would organize a meeting to discuss floods next week.
"Many residents were taking their Idul Fitri holiday over the last two weeks, so we couldn't organize it earlier," he said.
Haryoko's own home is usually flooded several times a year.
BMG last month warned that eastern Jakarta, including Cipinang and Cipayung, would be worst affected in the coming floods.
The city administration has prepared 3,500 staff from search and rescue teams, the Indonesian Red Cross, the police and the military to evacuate residents.
Jakarta's public works agency has begun dredging rivers and fixing blocked sewers in preparation for the flood season.
The state electricity company has also taken precautionary measures to protect substations in several areas which were affected in the previous floods.
Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Rapid urbanization in Asia has resulted in the region's large cities being more prone to crises resulting from both natural and man-made disasters.
In response to this situation, The Asian Network of Major Cities (ANMC21) in 2003 held the first of what would become annual Asian Crisis Management Meetings.
This year's meeting, to be hosted by the Jakarta administration from Oct. 24 to 25, has been themed "Damage Mitigation and Maintenance of Major Cities' Primary Services in a Disaster".
Representatives from Bangkok, Delhi, Hanoi, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Seoul, Singapore, Taipei, Tokyo and Yangon are scheduled to attend the meeting.
The first day of the conference will include presentations from several of the city's agencies concerning public order, public infrastructure and fire-fighting, as well as presentations from ANMC21 representatives.
Delegates will visit the city's crisis center at the City Hall, the Meteorology and Geophisics Agency (BMG) and the Fire Department Training Center on the second day of the conference.
At past conferences, issues such as urban disasters and terrorism were focal points.
The network's fourth conference held in Singapore last year focused on "new threats" such as terrorism, while delegates at the network's third conference in Seoul predominately discussed fires.
The most common disasters to strike Asia in recent years have been earthquakes, floods and fires.
In developing cities, the impact of disasters is often exacerbated by a lack of urban planning and facilities.
"We expect to learn a lot from the experiences of other cities," the head of Indonesia's Inter-city Cooperation Bureau Aisa Tobing said.
Jakarta's recent efforts to manage and prevent crisis situations have been seen as substandard by many, with floods continuing to hit the city year after year.
Aging fire departments and trucks have contributed to the city's poor record in fire prevention and management in recent years.
Last week the city's fire department told new Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo that more personal and fire trucks were required.
The governor promised to look into greater funding for the department.
Last year there were more than 900 fires in the city, the majority of which started in densely populated areas according to data from the city's fire department.
Between January and September this year some 680 fires had already been reported in the city.
JAKARTA (AFP) — In a land hit by one natural disaster after another, Indonesia's armed forces must shift their focus from the battlefield to emergency and relief efforts, its defence minister said Wednesday.
In an interview with AFP, Juwono Sudarsono said most of Indonesia's defence spending in the next decade would go on improving its transport capability to better respond to emergencies.
There are certainly plenty of those.
Earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides, floods and fires are a virtually daily feature of life in this vast archipelago nation, which sits on the so-called Pacific "ring of fire" where continental plates meet.
The deadliest recent event was the December 2004 tsunami spawned by a quake which swept the Indian Ocean, killing 168,000 people in the northern point of Indonesia's Sumatra island.
Sudarsono said he foresaw that in the next 10 to 15 years, the role of the defence forces would be particularly important in terms of delivering relief and aid to stricken areas.
"Looking ahead, for 10 years ahead in this ring of fire, and with tectonic plates underneath us, the bulk of our defence spending would be on transport capability for emergency responses," he said.
That would include air and land transport as well as a sealift capability, he added in the interview, conducted entirely in English in his office.
By man-made disasters, he said, he meant conflicts that were "endemic" in outer islands such as the Moluccas and other troublespots.
"The bulk of our budget for the period for 2005-2010 is, in fact, more for transport and airlift capacity, and sealift," Sudarsono said.
He said the military were quickest to respond to disaster, with airplanes and helicopters commandeered by the government for initial search and rescue efforts as well as providing aid supplies.
"As exemplified by the post-tsunami relief efforts, the army, the navy and the air force were first on the scene with transport ships, helicopters," he said.
Sudarsono was educated in Britain and the United States and has served in different administrations back to the regime of former dictator Suharto.
Now 65, he says the armed forces -- 316,000 personnel across the army, navy and air force -- are run on a modest annual budget of 3.2 billion dollars.
Its delivery capacity suffered greatly under a military embargo imposed by Washington after a bloody 1991 massacre in Indonesia-occupied East Timor.
The embargo has been lifted, but 15 of its fleet of 21 Hercules transport airplanes remain out of operation.
"We are focusing on the Hercules because we have about 21 planes and about three quarters of them are grounded because of the lack of spares," Sudarsono said, adding that the air force was prioritizing their refitting.
Traditionally reliant on the West -- notably the United States -- for its military equipment, Indonesia has since a decade ago sought to diversify its sources, Sudarsono said.
The Indonesian and Russian presidents inked a billion-dollar arms deal in September under which Jakarta is buying helicopters, tanks and submarines.
It came a month after Indonesia had signed another deal worth 354 million dollars to buy six Sukhoi-30 fighter jets from Moscow.
Sudarsono said he would also be visiting China in early November to sign a defence cooperation agreement that could include a joint production programme, again focusing on transport.
He said the military shopping spree was not aimed at boosting Indonesia's strike capability.
"We would just like to maintain what we call technological parity with the fighters that are existing in the region, be it Australia, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand," adding that in terms of quantity, the Indonesian air force had "just the bare minimum."
"That is all that we can afford," he said. "I am running one of the best underpaid defence forces in Southeast Asia."
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
State insurance company Jasa Raharja conducted urine tests on intercity bus drivers Monday at East Jakarta's Pulo Gadung bus terminal in an effort to promote the safe passage of holidaymakers to their hometowns, a company officer said.
The tests were to screen out drivers under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
Pulo Gadung officer Wiwiek Susanti told Tempointeraktif.com, "Drivers using drugs will not be allowed to leave the terminal".
The number of passengers traveling from the city has been increasing since last week as the holiday season approaches.
Jakarta residents are flocking to bus and train stations, eager to reach their hometowns to spend Idul Fitri with their relatives, the company said.
According to the city transportation agency, it is estimated that average daily bus passengers will begin to rise above 10,000 this week; on normal days the figure is under 1,000.
Pulo Gadung will have 770 extra busses on hand to meet the demand, while the total number of extra busses to be allocated citywide will be around 5000, the agency said.
The spike in vehicular traffic may increase the likelihood of accidents and delays.
A recent Transportation Ministry estimate showed 2.43 million motorcyclists would travel to destinations in Sumatra and Java and another 1.5 million would go there by private car.
Wiwiek said the insurance company began screening bus drivers to help prevent accidents, because it had no way to encourage safety among drivers of private vehicles.
The Jasa Raharja team, which is supported by police officers and the Jakarta Transportation Agency, used a random selection scheme for the drug and alcohol tests. None of the ten drivers who were tested Monday returned positive results.
Bus driver Hariyanto, who was selected for testing, said he did not mind and said that such tests would promote safe driving.
"They should conduct the test regularly, at peak season and at other times, to bring these issues to the attention of irresponsible drivers," he said.
However the transportation agency said it was reluctant, as such safety efforts are the responsibility of health agencies or the national police.
Tokyo (ANTARA News/Asia Pulse) - Nippon Life Insurance Co. plans to build a new redundant computer centre in Ibaraki, Osaka Prefecture, to allow for rapid recovery of operations in case of fire or other disasters.
The new facility, at an estimated cost of 40-50 billion yen (US$347-434 million), will duplicate the functions of the current centre in Sakai, also in Osaka Prefecture, and operate in synch with it at all times.
The redundancy will allow the firm to test newly developed systems under real conditions, helping to prevent errors such as nonpayment of insurance claims. The system is expected to come into full operation in fiscal year 2011.
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Ivan worked until late and was just about to leave the office when he felt the high-rise building he was in on Jl. Jend. Sudirman, Central Jakarta, begin to sway. In a panic, he and three others from the same floor took the elevator to reach the lobby. It got stuck.
"I thought 'this is it' ... we almost lost hope, but then the elevator started working again," he said, recalling the evening of Sept. 12 when a powerful earthquake measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale hit Bengkulu and West Sumatra.
Most building tenants are unaware that the swaying of a building is actually a good sign: meaning the building won't fall down.
Although there are no regulations on earthquake mitigation in high-rise buildings or public places, many building owners have designed their properties to withstand quakes up to a 7-magnitude on the Richter scale.
"However, many building management boards ignore the importance of a disaster mitigation grand plan, which should involve all tenants and authorities in the building.
"The fact that most people tend to forget life-saving measures when they panic in an emergency situation highlights the importance of regular escape drills," said Amtono Prasutanto, a consultant and training instructor at the Disaster Management Institute of Indonesia.
"Drills train your brain and body where to go and what to do in an emergency situation."
Amtono suggested building management boards appoint caretakers on each floor of high-rise buildings to show tenants escape routes out of the building to be used in emergency situations.
"Floor caretakers can set up their own emergency plans, while the building management boards should be responsible for facilitating each plan. It's better to have strategic emergency plans in place. One can never be too careful or too prepared," he said.
What to do in the event of an earthquake
If you are indoors - Stay inside - Drop to the floor, take cover under a heavy piece of furniture or stand against an inside wall. Stay indoors until the shaking stops and it is safe to exit. - Stay away from windows and doors. - Never take an elevator.
If you are outdoors - Move to a clear area away from buildings, trees and power lines. - Drop to the ground until the shaking stops.
If you are in a car - Slow down and drive to a clear area (as described above). - Turn on emergency lights and slow to a stop. Do not stop on overpasses, underpasses or bridges. - Be aware of overhead hazards such as power lines or falling debris from buildings. - Turn off the ignition and set the parking brake. - Stay inside the car until the shaking stops.
If trapped under debris - Do not light a match. - Do not move about or kick up dust. - Cover your mouth with a handkerchief or clothing. - Tap on a pipe or wall so rescuers can locate you. Use a whistle if one is available. - Shout only as a last resort, as shouting can cause you to inhale dangerous particles.
Source: Disaster Management Institute of Indonesia
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Jakarta is not among quake-prone regions, but it must prepare for the destructive impact that earthquakes may exert on high-rise buildings.
A seminar Wednesday told the city to make buildings earthquake-ready, improve seismic risk assessment and quickly alert residents about quake activity.
The seminar aimed to evaluate existing disaster policies and improve earthquake safety awareness.
Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso said, at the opening of the event held at City Hall, that the city was vulnerable to earthquakes because of subsurface instability and buildings that were not up to modern earthquake standards.
"We must therefore set a new standard for building construction here; the buildings must be able to withstand quakes measuring up to 9 on the Richter scale."
According to the governor, most Jakarta buildings were high tech and built with underlying soil conditions in mind.
However, even modern buildings would not necessarily be able to tolerate a quake measuring eight plus on the Richter scale, said the head of the city's building planning and control agency, Hari Sasongko.
"It's very costly to prepare (buildings) to withstand the more powerful earthquakes, and it will require redesign," he told reporters on the sidelines of the seminar.
He added that all buildings with permits were already in line with current earthquake risk compliance standards.
In a presentation, coordinator of the city administration's building construction consulting team, Widyanyana Merati, said that Jakarta should conduct a detailed seismic disaster risk assessment involving the formulation of strategic plans for anticipating and mitigating the impacts of quakes.
Widyanyana also said the administration should prepare a system for issuing community alerts and facilitate the development of an emergency rescue system.
Head of the data and geophysics information center of the Meteorological and Geophysics Agency, Sunarjo, told the audience in the event of an earthquake-triggered tsunami, Jakarta could minimize the number of victims by publicizing news of earthquakes as soon as possible after their occurrence.
"The information could be delivered via SMS, email or fax in less than five minutes."
But this type of emergency notification system would only be available, he said, after completion of the Indonesian Tsunami Early Warning System (year-end 2008 completion date).
Within the last two years, Jakarta residents have felt the vibrations of three earthquakes whose epicenters were far from the capital: the 7.2 magnitude earthquake in Pangandaran, West Java, in July 2006; the 7.5 magnitude earthquake in Indramayu, also in West Java, last August; and the 8.4 magnitude earthquake in Bengkulu earlier this month.
In Jakarta, none of these earthquakes caused significant structural damage or claimed human life. (11)
Emergency numbers in case of earthquakes
Crisis center : (021)3822212, 3500000, 3862022
Fax: (021)3862022 and (021)3823412
SMS: 0811 920 203
Ambulance : 118
Fire department : 113, 344, 1309, 7507
PLN (power company) : 123
Tollway operator : 801, 1735
Search and Rescue : 115, 550, 1111, 2111
Police : (021)5250110, 3857974, 110, 112, 525
JAKARTA (Antara): The Ministry of Health said it has established an international training consortium on disaster risk reduction (ITC-DRR) this month to better handle disaster response management.
The ministry's spokesperson Lily Sulistyowati said the consortium, which involves universities, hospitals, and health institutions, will provide training for disaster relief workers.
Disaster relief efforts have been in progress for some time, with ongoing emergency management training for 1,149 medical officers posted across nine regional crisis centers, she said.
"The training program began in 2006, and involves officers from Medan, Palembang, Jakarta, Semarang, Surabaya, Bali, Banjarmasin, Makassar and Manado," the spokesperson said Friday.
Training areas include disaster management, radio communication, emergency treatment, medicine and logistics management, rapid health assessment, advanced cardio life support, as well as advanced trauma life support.
Medical officers need specialized skills in disaster relief management, including categorizing patients, setting priorities and how best to deliver medical assistance.
Lily also said disaster response management, especially health services, facilities and equipment, needs improvement because disasters are often followed by various health problems.
Bengkulu (ANTARA News) - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono ordered regional government leaders not to leave their tasks behind and join evacuation when a national disaster hit their areas.
"Leaders must have the sense of willing to sacrifice for their people in handling a natural disaster though it is something difficult to face," the president said when observing the center of Bengkulu Natural Disaster Mitigation Task Force (Satkolak PBA) here on Monday.
President Yudhoyono, who was accompanied by Chief Minister for People`s Welfare Aburizal Bakri, Health Minister Siti Fadillah Supari and Indonesian Defense Forces Commander Djoko Suyanto, symbolically handed over relief aid to Bengkulu Governor Agusrin Maryono Najamudin.
He said that he could not accept if regional leaders were also `evacuated` when there were emergency situations such as the ones befalling the provinces of Bengkulu, West Sumatra and other regions.
The president said the disaster impacts would be difficult to be managed well and maximally if the leaders left their tasks behind.
"I will not blame them if they evacuate because there are aftershocks or tsunami but they can still issue instructions from their evacuation places so that the people would not lose control," he said.
A powerful earthquake with a magnitude of 7.9 rocked Indonesia`s Bengkulu province at 6.10 p.m. on Wednesday, claiming the lives of 14 people and injuring 23 others.
The president said that in an emergency situation a leader must be ready to stay awake all the time if needed. "If a leader does not carry out his or her tasks well it could be ascertained that the job would not be settled effectively," he added.
On the occasion, the president also asked regional governments not to provide misleading information from irrelevant agencies aside from, for example, the Geophysics and Meteorology Agency.
He also made the same appeal to the media publications, electronic or print, advising them they quote news from official sources.
Bengkulu (ANTARA News) - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said here Monday he would spend the night in a quake-affected place in Sumatra so as to show local community leaders what they should among other things do when there was a natural disaster in their jurisdiction.
Speaking during a visit to Bengkulu`s Provincial Natural Disaster Handling Center (Satkorlak), the president said he wanted to spend the night in a quake-hit place in order to make sure that government decisions, instructions and policy on mitigation of the disaster were right.
The president, who had just listened to a report on the impact of last Wednesday`s powerful earthquake from Bengkulu Governor Agusrin Maryono Najamudin, said he would sleep in a disaster-hit spot to set an example to district heads (who were responsible for disaster mitigation efforts in the field) on how they could make sure that their measures to deal with an emergency were right and effective.
"I will bave no tolerance for any regional chief who fails to do his or her job in an an emergency situation," Yudhoyono said.
The president said, a leader who avoided taking a risk, was not a good leader. Therefore, he called on district chiefs across the country to prepare themselves and, if necessary, take risks to help residents when there was a disaster.
Yudhoyono said when earthquakes hit Nabire in Papua, Nias and other areas, he did the same thing.
"I slept in a makeshift tent in Nabire while the area was being rocked by aftershocks," the head of state said.
On the occasion, the president also expressed his condolences to the families of earthquake victims in Bengkulu, and his gratitude to all the parties involved in emergency response efforts.
Ketahun, Indonesia (ANTARA News) - More than 15,000 buildings collapsed or were seriously damaged by a series of massive earthquakes striking Indonesia's Sumatra, authorities said Saturday as the death toll rose to 17.
An initial 8.4-magnitude quake struck at dusk off Sumatra's west coast on Wednesday and was followed by a series of major aftershocks, jolting the coastal provinces of Bengkulu and West Sumatra most severely.
In Bengkulu, nearly 2,000 houses were totally flattened and nearly 4,000 others badly damaged, said Bowo Santoso from the governor's disaster rescue centre. About 90 local hospitals and clinics were also damaged, he added.
In West Sumatra, more than 9,700 houses collapsed or were too badly damaged to be inhabitable, said Suryadi from the disaster rescue centre there. More than 100 mosques and about 20 school buildings were also damaged, he said.
Meanwhile Hercules transport planes were to try to drop aid on several islands in the Mentawai group off Sumatra which were badly hit by the quake and a small tsunami, said an official in the city of Padang.
Frans Karel, an official on Pagai Utara island, said no aid had yet been received and many frightened villagers were still sheltering in the hills.
"We haven't yet received aid. All the kiosks have collapsed and their food stocks are wet," he told AFP by telephone.
"Almost 75 percent of houses on the coastline along a 10-kilometre (eight miles) stretch are badly damaged and collapsed."
Rescue workers were still scouring rubble to hunt for victims feared to be trapped under collapsed houses, Rustam Pakaya from the health ministry's crisis centre told ElShinta radio.
The death toll was now at 17, and 88 people were injured, he said.
Mustaqim Adamrah and Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG) said Thursday the earthquake and aftershocks that rattled western Sumatra on Wednesday would not affect buildings in the capital.
"All buildings and infrastructure in Jakarta have been designed to adapt to quakes," earthquake division head Suhardjono said at the agency's headquarters.
The epicenter of Wednesday's 7.9-Richter-scale earthquake was some 100 kilometers southwest of the capital of Bengkulu and at a depth of about 15 kilometers.
Bystanders on Jl. Jend. Sudirman, Central Jakarta, reportedly saw office buildings sway during the quake.
The Jakarta disaster coordinating task force head, Bobby Aryono, said the unit had not received any reports of damaged buildings as of Thursday afternoon.
Suhardjono said the buildings and infrastructure were designed to sway according to the movement created by an earthquake and thus were safe from it.
"So, Jakartans should not have panicked or been hysterical. Moreover, the epicenter was far (from the capital). It would have been another story if the epicenter were nearby," he said.
However, geotechnical engineering researcher at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences Adrin Tohari said that Jakarta's northern coastal area was vulnerable to liquefaction during earthquakes as it sat on unsolid soil.
Liquefaction makes the ground lose its ability to support structures.
"It would ruin buildings and blow up pipelines planted below the surface. The reclamation areas on the northern coastline are prone to liquefaction," he told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.
Adrin made the prediction based on his research on the impact of an earthquake on liquefaction risks in Bengkulu.
The research, carried out in July, found that an earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale that hit Bengkulu in 2000 caused land subsidence of between 20 centimeters to 30 cm in coastal areas.
"The composition of Bengkulu's coastal areas is mostly cohesion-less sands and clay similar to Jakarta's northern coastal zone," he said.
Houses in coastal areas of Bengkulu collapsed in the 2000 earthquake.
The Jakarta administration is reclaiming a 32-kilometer stretch of northern coastline to add about 2,700 hectares of land to the city.
The land will be used for industrial parks, hotels, office buildings and upscale accommodation for up to 1.19 million residents.
The BMG recorded three aftershocks in Sumatra on Wednesday and Thursday and issued a tsunami warning.
Suhardjono said that the quake and its aftershocks resulted from clashes and friction between the Indo-Australian tectonic plate and the Eurasian tectonic plate.
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Indonesian government has declared an emergency response status for Bengkulu and Padang respectively for a week and three days following quakes that had rattled the two regions on Wednesday and Thursday.
The decision to that effect was made at a limited cabinet meeting chaired by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at the Halim Perdanakusuma air force base here on Thursday evening.
In the meeting which was also attended by Vice President Jusuf Kalla and a number of cabinet ministers it was reported that 10 people had so far been found killed in the disaster, namely six in Bengkulu and four in West Sumatra.
At a press conference after the meeting President Yudhoyono said he had told heads of the regions rocked by the quake who happened to be out of town or abroad to immediately return home to direct emergency response efforts.
"As aftershocks still continued, he called on residents in affected areas to remain alert. They must be in full alert while continuing their emergency response efforts and must not panic as operating procedures for dealing with natural disasters are already in place and trainings in dealing with disasters were about to be started," he said.
On the occasion the President also offered his condolences to the families and relatives of the quake victims and called for immediate attention to the injured.
He said although the tremors were quite strong, reports and results of inspections in the quake-ridden areas said the damage caused to the two affected regions was minimum, including the number of deaths.
He praised the people who had learnt a lesson from the quakes and tsunami in Aceh in 2004. "I heard that the local governments` response to the disaster and the swiftness of the people in seeking safety have been better. This deserves an appreciation. The results are good," he said.
In spite of the fact he said that the government would contine to improve the system of disaster handling including logistics supply, so that any disaster could be handled quickly by local governments and the central government would only help in case of a huge disaster.
Information minister Muhammad Nuh meanwhile said two islands namely Mentawai and Muko-Muko still remained isolated after the quake and telephone lines there had also been cut off so that the real situation in the areas was still not known.
