JAKARTA: Torrential rain flooded Indonesia's overpopulated capital on Tuesday for the second time this year, paralysing wide areas and prompting rescue workers to evacuate people by boat from murky, brown waterways. Indonesia's weather agency linked the rains to tropical cyclones, but the agency head also said such extreme weather events were happening with greater intensity and more frequently. Dwikorita Karnawati, head of Indonesia's weather agency, said data showed extreme rain events occurring with rising intensity in the past 30 years and with a higher frequency in the past 10 years. Nana Setiawan, a 50-year old resident of East Jakarta, said his house has been hit by floods four times this year. Hundreds of people had been evacuated on Tuesday, said Yusuf Larif, a spokesman for the National Search and Rescue Agency.

Source: The Star February 25, 2020 13:30 UTC