Red Cross organizes emergency drill

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Thousands of people in coastal Muara Baru, North Jakarta, took part Sunday morning in a two-hour disaster drill aimed at preparing residents and authorities to respond to a tidal wave.

Up to 2,000 Muara Baru residents were involved in the drill, which was organized by the Jakarta chapter of the Indonesian Red Cross.

Jakarta Deputy Governor Prijanto said good coordination and communication were important in responding to any disaster.

"Too often flood-affected residents refuse to move to shelters set up by the government, saying they want to stay close to their houses," he said.

The drill, the first ever in Indonesia to prepare residents and officials to respond to a tidal wave, was part of a Red Cross campaign to increase public awareness about the threat of tidal waves.

During the drill, residents were led to open and higher ground, in this case an unused field owned by a real estate company, where the Red Cross had set up a coordination post.

Residents were instructed to use the main road, instead of the narrow lanes of their densely packed neighborhoods, and head for the post, located about a kilometer from the coast.

The post included emergency medical assistance, a pharmacy, shelters and kitchens.

The drill also involved hundreds of personnel from the National Search and Rescue Agency, the provincial natural disaster coordinating unit, the Jakarta Military Command, the Jakarta Police and the Navy's Western Fleet.

Trained locals also participated by sounding an early warning to the tidal wave and then providing first aid.

Though usually a seasonal phenomenon, because of global warming and environmental degradation, high waves have caused losses to coastal residents over the past few months in the form of floods and by preventing fishermen from going to sea.

In early February, flood victims in Kampung Rawa, West Jakarta, built shelters on nearby railway tracks. They said the shelters provided by the government were too far from their homes.

Jeung Park, a representative of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said the Indonesian Red Cross was measuring and evaluating its capacity to deal with a tidal wave disaster with Sunday's drill.

"Although there are weaknesses, like in the information system, it's a good thing that they can learn from the simulation," he said. (dre)