DAM BURST SURVIVOR: "IT WAS LIKE SMALL TSUNAMI"

Tangerang, Indonesia, March 27 (ANTARA) - Mrs Kartini (45), one of the survivors of a dam disaster on the southwestern outskirts of Jakarta on Friday said the incident was "like a small tsunami."
"A wall of water reaching up to 10 meters high suddenly covered houses making people to run for safety," she told ANTARA.

She said she first heard about the burst of the dam at around 4 am, following hours of heavy rain.

She said she had already felt that something bad would happen and therefore she had sent her six children with their father to a relative's home in Kebon Jeruk, West Jakarta, on Thursday.

She said the water came swiftly while many of the people were still asleep.

She wept upon knowing that some of her neighbors had gone missing and yet been found. More than 36 people have been found dead while the fate of some others still remained unclear.

Kartini's house was located just 50 meters from the Situ Gintung dam and was levelled.

The dam was built as a water reservoir during the Dutch colonial times on around 21.4 hectares of land.***