Floodwaters in Kedah villages yet to subside
ALOR SETAR: It has not rained since Saturday but the floodwaters at Kampung Alor Senjaya and Kampung Bohor in Titi Gajah, Kedah, is a metre high.
Roziah Hassan, 70, from Kampung Bohor said most of her furniture was damaged as the floodwaters rose very fast while her children were all at work.
“Luckily, my neighbours came to help shift some of my belongings to higher ground,” she said.
Her neighbour Mohd Zakaria, 32, said the last floods happened in 2010, adding that they hoped the floodwaters from upstream would recede soon.
The 338 evacuees at SK Titi Gajah yesterday received a royal visit from Raja Puan Muda Perak Tunku Soraya Almarhum Sultan Abdul Halim, who spent about an hour at the relief centre meeting with the evacuees and handing out aid.
Meanwhile, more than 1,600 people returned to their homes in Kedah and Perlis after the floodwaters receded.
Many were happy to leave the relief centres but sad at the damage to their homes and belongings.
Factory worker Madihah Azelan, 28, from Taman Seri Bagan said there was much to clean up but he didn’t know where to start.
Che Mahmud Ahmad, 60, a school operations assistant, blamed the floods on poor drainage.
“If the drainage system is not improved, I am sure floods will happen again,” he said.
The floods also caused three schools SRK Seri Indera (Perlis), SK Seri Banai and SK Bukit Hijau (Kedah) to be closed on Monday but classes will resume today.
In GEORGE TOWN, many of those affected rushed to apply for the RM400 flood relief from the state government.
Some 60 residents from Jalan Taman Thean Tek, Air Itam, filed in applications for the aid at the counter set up by Air Itam assemblyman Wong Hon Wai.
Among them was Leong Kwai Ying, who welcomed the financial assistance but said it would not be enough to replace her furniture and electrical appliances.
Septuagenarian Tan Ean Hong said the money will be used to pay the cost of sending her son, who has multiple disabilities, to a nursing home during the floods.
“The water was chest-high in my house and I had to put him in the home because his bed was destroyed,” she said.
Tan said she did not plan to buy new furniture because “it always floods and she can’t afford to replace them every time”.
She added that the floods was the worse she faced in 30 years.
State Welfare and Caring Society Committee chairman Phee Boon Poh issued a statement reminding victims not to buy flood aid forms, believed to be part of a scam.
MCA Penang wants the state gov- ernment to look into why areas that did not flood in the past were now inundated when there was a downpour.
Party state secretary Tang Heap Seng said areas like Jalan Air Itam near the state mosque, the Paya Terubong-Relau junction near SPICE Arena and Sungai Ara Desa Green have now become floodprone.