My friend, Ian, has shared his flooding experience on his blog. He had a bit of a different situation than I did, as he waited around another day before leaving Kelapa Gading – in the relative safety of a military truck versus the manure hauler we cruised in.

Several of our friends houses and cars were damaged and we were inconvenienced somewhat but 1000’s of people lost everything – and as is typical in the developing world – it is the poor who are most effected. Those with money have second stories on their houses and the means to evacuate. If you want to help, go and make a zillion dollars, pay off all the government officials to go away, then hire a team of urban developers and engineers the likes of who appear on the Discovery Channel type shows like MegaMonsterMachines. Pay them a ton of money if and only if they successfully rebuild the infrastructure of Jakarta.