Malaysia: Situation worsens, more than 200,000 displaced by flood

New Straits Times 29 Dec 14;

KUALA LUMPUR: The number of evacuees nationwide has swelled to 232,912, with Kelantan topping the list with 160,000 as it rained heavily in many parts of the East Coast.

The situation in Terengganu and Pahang also showed no let up with both having more than 60,000 at relief centres.

In Kemaman, Dungun and east Pahang, heavy rain is reported since morning.

However, in certain parts of Kelantan flood water has dried up. Our photographer Bazuki Muhammad who was in Kampung Wakaf Sena saw many cars stranded on the road as villagers cleaned up their houses.

Access to east coast cut off
RAZAK AHMAD, RAHIMY RAHIM, SYED AZHAR, SIMON KHOO, ONG HAN SEAN, JOSEPH KAOS JR, HANIS ZAINAL, AND RAHMAH GHAZALI
The Star 29 Dec 14;

PETALING JAYA: Access to the country’s flood-hit east coast states is now almost totally cut off after waters submerged many of the main roads to the affected areas.

The number of evacuees also rose by nearly 40,000 overnight as the Meteorological Department warned of a new round of heavy rains lasting until Wednesday.

A total of 200,023 evacuees are currently seeking shelter at more than 500 relief centres in five states, up from 160,921 on Saturday.

The East Coast Expressway was the latest major road to be flooded yesterday when water from Sungai Pahang spilled over at the 126km stretch of the highway at Temerloh, cutting off access to most parts of Pahang, Kelantan and Terengganu.

The Works Ministry in a Twitter message issued information on an alternative route that is still open for travellers to the east coast states, starting from Karak via the coastal road through Cherating and then on to Kuala Terengganu and Kota Baru.

As at 6.30pm yesterday, Kelantan remained the worst-hit state with the number of victims rising to 124,966 from 81,925 the day before.

Terengganu had 36,410 evacuees, Pahang (33,601), Perak (4,581) and Johor (465).

The Meteorological Department issued a three-day “yellow” stage alert from today for Perlis, Kedah, north Perak, Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang and Johor.

The alert, which warns of the possibility of monsoon rains and heavy winds, also covers Kudat and Sandakan in Sabah as well as Kuching, Samarahan, Sri Aman, Sarikei, Sibu, Mukah and Betong in Sarawak.

In Alor Setar, the Muda Agriculture Development Authority (Mada) announced that it had opened tide gates at three irrigation canals over the past two weeks to prevent the floods in Kedah and Perlis from worsening.

Its chairman Datuk Othman Aziz said the measure was necessary to prevent water from Sungai Pendang, Sungai Anak Bukit, Sungai Padang Sanai, Sungai Bata and Sungai Arau from spilling over.

There were no plans yet to release water from the Pedu, Ahning and Muda dams in Kedah, Othman said.

In KUANTAN, Temerloh has been effectively cut off to land vehicles after a section of the East Coast Expressway became severely flooded.

According to the Pahang Public Works Department, several trunk roads leading to and from the district were also inaccessible to all vehicles.

Main roads from Temerloh to Bera and Jerantut have also been closed after the water level rose to more than a metre high.

A spokesman from the Pahang police contingent headquarters flood operations room said the Seremban- Kuala Pilah-Serting-Muadzam Shah-Kuantan route could be used as an alternative for travel between Kuantan and Kuala Lumpur.

Disaster first response impeded
The Star 30 Dec 14;

PETALING JAYA: The National Security Council (NSC) disaster management was hampered when its staff at the district level were themselves victims of the flood.

The NSC cited a “complete collapse” of its disaster management team at the district levels in the East Coast as the cause of delays in rescue and relief efforts.

Getting individuals and companies to donate food and other supplies was the “easiest” part – the trouble in finding and rescuing the displaced and working out which area was the worst affected magnified when communications systems were down.

The NSC secretary Datuk Mohamed Thajudeen Abdul Wahab said their national disaster management team functioned by communicating from federal to state, and state to district level.

This time, however, the team at the district level had been hit themselves.

He said the massive floods which hit Kelantan and Terengganu in 1967 and then in 2004, were “nothing compared to the floods this year”.

“In the districts, the frontliners of our disaster management machinery include the village headman and district officers.

“But due to the magnitude of the floods, most districts were completely inundated.

“Our entire district machinery collapsed as they had become victims themselves.

“At this point electricity supply had to be cut to ensure victims do not get electrocuted.

“This made communications even more challenging, with downed lines handphones with drained batteries and no power.

“For us to know where help was needed and how bad each district was hit became the biggest problem,” he said yesterday.

“To make things worse, accessing these districts became impossible during the peak of the flooding between Dec 23 to Dec 27.”

“We could not use heavy vehicles, the currents were too strong to use boats and the winds were too turbulent to go by air,” he said.

Now, he said, the peak was over and things were getting “slightly better” as it was possible to deliver aid by air and on the ground.

He said 15 helicopters had been deployed in Kelantan alone. But there were still areas in the flood stricken states where helicopters had no landing ground and it was either government agencies, NGOs, or ad hoc leaders on the ground taking charge of distributing aid.

While the NSC coordinated the rescue and relief efforts, the agencies conducting the actual rescue efforts include the Fire and Rescue Department, army, police and Civil Defence Department.

The Meteorological Department yesterday issued its highest “Red Stage” warning for heavy rains in Dungun and Kemaman in Terengganu, Kuantan, Pekan and Rompin in Pahang and Mersing in Johor.

It said intermittent and occasional rain is expected to continue until Wednesday.

According to Bernama, the number of flood victims evacuated were 147,072, in Kelantan, 35,501 in Pahang, 32,210 in Terengganu, 7.407 in Perak and 175 in Johor.