Sunday, February 4, 2007

I'm high and dry...

Just so everyone is clear, I'm hundreds of miles away from the floods. If you look at the posting below titled "Surabaya!", you'll see a map of Java. Jakarta (where the flooding is) is on the west end of Java and Surabaya (where I am now) is on the east end, 600 kilometers away (a kilometer is 5/8 of a mile, so that's 375 miles). As you can see from the photos and blog entries below, I did get to experience the beginning of the flooding, but thankfully got on a plane and out of Jakarta before the flooding got bad. It's amazing that something like 300,00 people have been displaced - it's a monument to the consequences of poor-to-absent city planning (take note, Brian! hee hee). So don't worry, I'm fine and far away from the flooding. It's been raining a bit in Surabaya, but not very much; there's no flooding here at all.

If you want to follow some good, local English-language reporting on the floods, check out The Jakarta Post. The link is to the right, or just go to: http://www.thejakartapost.com/headlines.asp

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Whew! I was worried. That's what I get for keeping up with the news. Glad you are A-OK! -- Glen Go

Tom said...

Don't worry, Glen! I'm fine, but of course a bunch of people here at the conference came from Jakarta, and I have friends still there, so it's frustrating to hear about the continuing problems. Let's just say that better city planning is needed there!