ROADS turn into RIVERS
The New Paper 1 Jun 08;
BLAME it on the rain.
A heavy downpour on Thursday evening caused heavy flooding in Johor Baru.
In the city centre, the water level on Jalan Wong Ah Fook (above, one of the main roads downtown), rose to as high as 50cm within half an hour, reported The Star.
In other areas, the waters rose to as high as 3m, leading Malaysian newspapers to call this the most serious flood in almost 30years.
Compounding the problem was the fact that the floods took place during peak hour traffic.
Motorists were left stranded as the streets turned into rivers. Close to 100 cars in a hotel basement carpark were almost submerged.
Many Malaysians working in Singapore found themselves stuck when they returned toJohor. They had parked their motorcycles in the city before going across the Causeway, and found that their vehicles were now underwater.
They ended up standing around in the rain waiting for the waters to subside.
Motorists wern't the only victims. At least 60 shops were flooded after the downpour. These included bookshops, electronics stores and provision shops.
Shopkeepers told China Press that while they had experienced floods in the past, the waters did not usually rise high enough to get into their shops.
The extent of the flooding this time around had caught them completely by surprise.
Because everything happened so quickly, many shopowners did not have time to move their goods, which were soaked.
A photo studio owner said the water caused a short circuit in his shop, damaging almost all his equipment.
He estimated that it could cost him up to RM200,000 ($84,000) to replace everything.
To help deal with the jams caused by the floods, Johor police diverted traffic around the most flooded areas.
But this did not prevent many irate drivers from honking as traffic continued to crawl forward.
The waters started to recede at around 7.30pm, and normal traffic flow only resumed at around 8pm.
Flood detection system to be installed in JB
Gladys Tay, The Star 30 May 08;
JOHOR BARU: An early flood detection system will be installed at the Sungai Segget floodgate to prevent flooding in the city centre, said Johor Baru City Council (MBJB) mayor Datuk Naim Nasir.
He said the new system was fully automatic and the floodgate would open automatically when a flood was detected.
"It will be the same system that we set up at Sungai Air Molek," he said, adding that floods no longer occurred in the area after the system was installed.
He said a water pump would also be included to pump floodwaters into the sea in case of a flood.
Naim was speaking at the full council meeting about the measures to be taken to prevent another flood from recurring in the city centre.
A few main roads in the city centre, including Jalan Wong Ah Fook, Jalan Trus, Jalan Meldrum and Jalan Segget were flooded on Thursday evening after a heavy downpour.
Naim also said before the system was installed, closed-circuit televisions (CCTVs) would be put up at both floodgates in the city centre namely Sungai Segget and Sungai Chat to monitor the situation.
"The CCTVs will be connected to our monitoring room at Bangunan Tabung Haji," he said.
He added that the total cost for the new systems and the CCTVs were expected to be about RM500,000.
Naim explained that during the incident, the floodgate at Sungai Segget was closed due to high tide.
"The sea waters began to rise at 11.19am and the floodgate was closed at 3.30pm to prevent sea waters from entering the city," he said, adding that the highest tide was 2.8m.
He said the flood was not due to blocked drains as the drains were not clogged with rubbish.
"Our men had to spend 45 minutes to open the gate manually," he said, adding that the last time the area was flooded was in 2004.
Among the places affected were basement parking lots at the MBF Building, Merlin Tower, shops and commercial buildings located along the roads.
Hundreds of vehicles parked at the area were either trapped or submerged in the floodwaters.
Although it had been more than 24 hours since the floods receded, many cars were still trapped in murky floodwaters in several basement carparks in the city.
Many of the vehicles belonged to hotel guests and even those working in Singapore.
On Thursday, an hour-long downpour at about 5.30pm caused flash floods of about 0.5m and 1m in several parts of the city.
The floods also brought traffic to a standstill along many roads in the city.
Flood Warning System To Be Installed At Sungai Segget
Bernama 30 May 08;
JOHOR BAHARU, May 30 (Bernama) -- The Johor Baharu City Council (MBJB) will install an early warning system at the Sungai Segget floodgate to prevent flooding in the city.
Mayor Datuk Mohd Naim Nasir said the early warning system would automatically open or shut the floodgate once flooding was detected.
Tenders for the installation of the system which operated on the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (Scada) system costing about RM500,000 had been opened, he told reporters after chairing a MBJB full council meeting here Friday.
He said the installation of the early warning system at the Sungai Ayer Molek floodgate was proven successful in controlling flooding.
On the flash flood in Jalan Wong Ah Fook here yesterday, he said it was due to a heavy downpour and high tide.
Mohd Naim said although the floodgate at Sungai Segget was closed at 3.30pm to prevent high tide from entering the city, heavy downpour beginning at 5.30pm had prompted the MBJB to open the floodgate at 6.45pm to release the water.
He said about 20 shops and 100 vehicles in Jalan Meldrum and Jalan Trus were submerged in the flash flood.
The flash flood which was the worst experienced by the city in the last four years was discussed at the MBJB full council meeting, he added.
-- BERNAMA
