Malaysia: Almost 500 flood evacuees recorded in Selangor today

C. PREMANANTHINI New Straits Times 18 Oct 16;

KLANG: The number of flood evacuees in Selangor stood at 497 people out of 119 families this evening. The Dewan Serbaguna Dato Ahmad Razali, Kapar housed 167 people from 43 families.

The five active evacuation centres in operation are the Dewan Serbaguna Kampung Tok Muda, Dewan Serbaguna Dato Ahmad Razali (in Klang).

In Sabak Bernam, the active evacuation centres are the Dewan Sungai Air Tawar, and Dewan Parit Baru, Dewan Seri Sekinchan.

The Selangor Fire and Rescue Department said no casualties were reported so far.

Earlier this, the river bund at Sungai Keramat in Kampung Sri Keramat, Batu 5 broke due to the high tide.

Selangor state disaster management coordinator (for Sementa) Mohd Azmi Mat Sangir said the high tide began at 3am and the five-metre bund later broke.

The water level reached a height of 5.7 metres today.

Flood warning takes an old-fashioned turn with a crank
ALLISON LAI The Star 19 Oct 16;

KLANG: Loud wails of siren could be heard as early as 6am yesterday when overflowing water from Sungai Keramat began flooding Kampung Sementa at Batu 5 in Jalan Kapar here for the third consecutive day.

It was not the one used by rescue authorities. This was an initiative of villager Mohd Salleh Hassan using an old-fashioned manual hand cranked siren.

Mohd Salleh said he had been using the device for a long time when he was working in an automobile factory. The device was used as an alarm and wake-up call for the workers.

Mohd Salleh was keeping vigil near the river since Monday night to check on the bund, which had been strengthened with sandbags by the state Drainage and Irrigation Department.

He sounded the first round of sirens at about 6am yesterday after seeing the bund give way due to the high tide.

“I hope this simple gesture will help alert everyone who live nearby to stay safe,” he told The Star.

The village was inundated by a third round of flooding caused by high tide at about 7am.

Flood waters rose faster than on Monday and by 7.30am, several access roads to the village were already inaccessible.

The first flood hit the village at dawn on Sunday when a portion of the bund collapsed, causing water from the 5.6m high tide to flood more than 10 houses and damage eight cars.

Selangor Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali said 4,000 sand bags to temporarily strengthen the bund had been installed by the DID.

Selangor Disaster Management Committee Sementa coordinator Mohd Azmi Mat Sangir said the temporary measures had helped lessen the damage.

As at 9am yesterday, 26 evacuation centres had been activated in the state with 482 victims from 115 families being displaced.

Dewan Kg Tok Muda evacuation centre in Kapar had the most number of evacuees with 236 victims, followed by 63 in Dewan Sg Air Tawar in Sabak Bernam, and 39 in Dewan Dato Ahmad Razali in Kapar.