Friday December 22, 2006

Six killed in Johor floods

GET US OUT OF HERE: Two residents climbing onto a wall to escape the rising flood waters in Kota Tinggi, Johor, as household items and debris float out to the front yard from their homes. They were later rescued and taken to a relief centre

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JOHOR BARU: The floods have claimed six lives in Johor – four in Segamat and two in Kluang. Police discovered three bodies floating in Segamat, one of the worst hit areas.

The dead were identified as Ahmad Sarkawi, 70, Marsiah Ahmad, 69, and Nor Azahari Nordin, 28.

It is believed that all three drowned.

Also in Segamat, 61-year-old Teh Sook Ching died after hanging on for 24 hours for help to get her to the hospital.

DESPERATE RESCUE: Kota Tinggi residents being evacuated after their home was flooded following heavy rains in Johor.

Teh had fainted in her home on Wednesday morning and her family members had called various authorities for immediate aid but efforts to reach their home were hampered by shoulder-deep waters.

In Kluang, two bodies were found in a car submerged along the Paloh road.

They were identified as M. Mageswari, 26, a teacher, and A. Muniandy, 59, believed to be her uncle.

Fire and Rescue Department operations commander Hazmi Ali said a lorry driver had reported seeing two people in a car being swept away at 7am on Wednesday, but was unable to save them.

“We could not launch a rescue operation earlier as the current was too swift,” he said.

The car was discovered at 2.30pm yesterday submerged in 3m of water, some 80m away from where they were last seen.

So far, across Malaysia, 60,000 people have been evacuated from their homes, including 50,000 in Johor.

Four train services – Ekspres Senandung Malam KL-Singapore; Ekspres Senandung Malam Singapore-KL; Ekspres Timuran Tumpat-Singapore; and Ekspres Timuran Singapore-Tumpat – will resume normal service today. The Ekspres Wau KL-Tumpat and Tumpat-KL was back on the tracks yesterday.

The other train services to the affected areas remain disrupted.

The Meteorological Department has issued a Red Stage warning and warned people to brace for emergencies. Heavy rain is expected to hit the east coast states in the peninsula as well as the Klang Valley.

Red Stage denotes heavy monsoon rain, and the warning has gone out to Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang, Negri Sembilan, Malacca, as well as southern Selangor and Kuala Lumpur.

The department cautions that intermittent rain in these states is expected to turn heavy and last till Sunday. The warning was issued at 9am yesterday. The other warning stages are “orange” and “yellow”.

Orange means moderate to heavy monsoon rain with wind speed of 50-60kph and floods in low-lying areas. Yellow is just the possibility of a “monsoonal surge” in the next 24 to 48 hours. The North-South Expressway is now open to the public, with the Tangkak area free of floods.

A PLUS operator said the Tangkak area of the highway, which was initially closed because of floods, was declared clear as of 2pm on Thursday.

In Malacca, more people were taken to flood relief centres as the situation worsened – at 2pm yesterday, a total of 6,860 people or 1,565 families were affected.

In Kelantan, the latest state to be hit by flooding, some 400 people had to be evacuated when a tributary of the Sungai Kelantan broke its banks near Gua Musang early yesterday.

Areas affected by flooding are Kampung Kerinting, Kampung Baru, Kampung Baru Hilir, Kampung Limau Kasturi and Kampung Ciku Lama in the Tualang area where floodwaters rose to knee level.

A district fire and rescue department spokesman said the Gua Musang-Jeli, Gua Musang-Kuala Lipis and Gua Musang-Kuala Krai roads remained open despite heavy rain.

State Drainage and Irrigation Department director Lim Chow Hock said the water level at Sungai Golok had breached the warning level of 7m. Water level readings at Sungai Kelantan taken at Tualang and Tangga Krai in Kuala Krai were also reported to have exceeded the warning level of 29m. In Pahang, water was still rising in Rompin and Kuantan districts. As at press time, 2,000 people had been evacuated.

Some 6,000 residents in nine Felda schemes in the area lost their only link to the Segamat-Kuantan road when part of the bridge over the river was washed away on Wednesday.

In Terengganu, 260 people from four villages in the Kemaman district had to be evacuated from their houses.

The situation in Negri Sembilan has improved, with 467 people at evacuation centres in Gemas and Tampin yesterday, compared with 760 people the previous day.

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