Jakarta is in a state of emergency. Governor Joko Widodo announced on Thursday that he is putting the city on high alert until 27 January following the torrential rain that has caused massive flooding throughout large parts of the city and crippled transport and commercial activities. While there aren’t that many local startups that were built for this sort of situation, there’s been some effort from the community to support disaster relief and to deal with the situation through Twitter accounts.
Twitter has been instrumental in the distribution of information regarding the city’s condition. While we’re still waiting for some numbers from Twitter itself regarding its use in and around Jakarta yesterday, there’s a number of accounts that have been consistently providing helpful information.
@lewatmana (130k followers) and @tmcpoldametro (1.3 million) are two of the most active accounts with information regarding flooded areas in Jakarta in addition to its own regular updates of traffic conditions. Also worth noting is @infojakarta (350k) that has been posting regular updates about the city’s condition.
@infoll (400k) have also been providing traffic info but there’s no specific updates about flooding. Commuter train passengers can find out the latest information on rail network updates from @commuterline (44k) and transjakarta bus service notifications can be found on @blutransjakarta (30k).
@id_ayahASI (57k), an account which promote breastfeeding, has been helping out with information on locations of emergency and support posts across the city especially for breastfeeding mothers while weather forecasts and conditions are available through @infobmkg (500k), the official account for the country’s meteorological agency.
For those wanting to keep themselves updated on the situation in Jakarta, it’s worth following these accounts or checking on them from time to time for the latest development. If you know of any more useful accounts that help out during these times, do let us know in the comments.