According to the press, there are now >300,000 people flooded out of their homes here in Jakarta.  The death toll climbed from 6 on Saturday to 20 Sunday.  According to the press (and it seems right) most of the rain on Sunday was south of the city, in the mountains .... however, there are about 12 rivers that run from there into the city .... so the rain there just moves into Jakarta.  As for here in the city .... it began raining heavily again last night (Sunday night) at about 1am.  It is now 435am ... the rain has just now lightened up ..... more flooding on its way ... no doubt.

According to the press/weather forecasters .... we have 2 more weeks of this.  Don't know if that means .... on / off rain ... or pretty much "on".

Disease will soon become an issue as people run into sanitary and drinking water issues.  I need to have Decy double check our bottled water supplies and bottled gas supplies.

Because of the unstable internet access, I will post this blog and then "edit" it from time to time.  That will ensure that at least some of what I write will be saved, even if I lose the connection.

Yesterday (Sunday) was an incredibly frustrating and emotionally draining day.  The 3 hours I spent implementing the emergency warden system did me in.   The basic approach works good .... we have wardens in various sub-divisions that then call the 4-6 company people that live in their area.  The wardens act as a "messenger" for any emergency.  Having 4-6 people to call is one thing ... but I am the HOTEL warden ... and currently we have 55 visitors in 3 different hotels.  So, not only do I have a gazillion calls to make ... but I have to go through an operator ... and the list, which is always changing as people arrive/depart Jakarta has too many errors.

Everybody has been instructed about the warden system and that they need to keep the organization informed of any travel changes .... but they don't .. then when you add in a bit of human error ... it becomes a mess.

I wasted a bunch of time trying to call one visitor that was supposed to be here until 8-Feb ... but seems they checked out on 31-Jan.  Then, I accidentally called somebody that was supposed to have checked out at 31-Jan ... and they were still here.  Then, there is the family that have moved from a hotel to a house ... but the records haven't been updated (for whatever reason).  This family is on my list to call ... but the only number I have is the hotel.

Add to the above, that I was on the phone for 3 hours ... if I hadn't had my charger nearby, my phone would have been dead.  Then - because of the rain - many of the phone circuits are down ... which means I often had to call 3-4 times just to get through to the hotel once ... so you do the math regarding phone usage ....

Also had some technical issues at home. First, I couldn't find my call out list ... and call record log.  So I tried printing it ... had printer problems ... got one printer to print ... but it was out of color ink (nobody replaced the cartridge, which we had).  The list was in black, red, yellow (while that printer did not do gray scale) ... so, half the list was missing (red colors).  I kept flipping back and forth between the PC ..... the new (black only) print out and the old color print out ... I got confused which list I was on ... which is how I happen to accidently call somebody who SHOULD have left the city .... but didn't.

As you can tell, this was a very frustrating event.  I will write a report today and spell out all the ugly details.  Some people will be offended .... but if I don't highlight the weaknesses in our processes then we can't improve them ... and in the event of a major emergency (riots, earthquake, evacuation) .... accuracy and efficiency will become critical.

Enough ... I am already tired and it is only 455am.

ciao ciao