February 05, 2007	Monday	Muharram 16, 1428

JAKARTA, Feb 4: Rescuers and volunteers on Sunday struggled to help nearly 340,000 Indonesians left homeless by devastating floods, triggered by heavy rains in and around Jakarta, which have killed 20 people.

With more rain forecast, authorities put the capital on high alert and police deployed 12,600 extra personnel equipped with helicopters, inflatable boats and rafts to assist with evacuation efforts across the city.

Many residents escaped their homes on inner tubes, children's inflatable paddling pools and makeshift rafts, or by wading through the floods rather than wait for help to arrive.

Water levels reached rooftops in some areas as rivers and canals that criss-cross the city burst their banks following days of torrential downpours.

“The number of our personnel is enough, but what we are lacking are rubber boats for the evacuation of residents,” said Jakarta police spokesman Untung Yoga Ana.

Ana said the floods in the capital and surrounding areas had so far left 20 people dead and one missing.

“The victims died because of disease, cold, electrocution or were swept away by the floods,” Ana told the state Antara news agency.

Health ministry officials said 18 were killed and two missing.

At least 122 areas were seriously flooded in the city of 10 million people and the surrounding towns of Tanggerang Depok and Bekasi, Ana said.

Some 339,138 people in Jakarta, Tanggerang and Bekasi had left their homes to seek shelter, health ministry official Rustam Pakaya said. It was a dramatic increase from the 190,000 reported displaced earlier in the day.

Television stations showed footage of inundated areas around the capital, mainly along the Ciliwung, Pesangrahan and Krukut rivers, with people being evacuated from their roofs or the second floors of their homes.—AFP