Families flee as levee breaks

Homes damaged, residents forced to relocate to relief centres

RESIDENTS in Taman Songket, Sungai Petani, ran for their lives after a pond located behind their houses overflowed, Sinar Harian reported.

The incident happened after an hour of heavy rain caused the overflow, which collapsed the barrier walls.

Several houses were damaged. M. Letchumy, 51, said she and her family left their house in a hurry to save themselves.

“We heard a loud ‘boom’. Even the children who were playing in the rain ran.”

G. Sundaramurthy, 60, claimed that the waterways linking the drains and the pond were clogged, which caused the water to overflow.

A total of 89 residents from 19 families were relocated to a temporary relief centre at a school last Sunday.

Kuala Muda district disaster management committee secretariat Capt (Civil Defence) Azahar Ahmad said the temporary relief centre was shut down on Tuesday.

> Actress Nur Ruhainies Farehah Zainul Ilyas, better known as Ruhainies, was criticised on social media after she posted a video of a pack of grapes that cost RM148, Harian Metro reported.

She explained that she had not meant to show off but only wanted to tease her boyfriend who bought her the grapes.

“I asked him to buy it for me, but I didn’t think that he would buy grapes at that price,” Ruhainies, 27, said.

She said she would have been fine with much cheaper ones, as long as she could eat her favourite fruit.

Ruhainies felt unsettled that this had become a topic on Twitter with people criticising her.

“It is such a petty thing but people want to make it an issue. It is as if I had made a serious mistake. Can’t they look at this as just entertainment?” she asked.

> Just 34,000 out of 54,000 fisherman nationwide have been found eligible to receive the cost of living allowance which was raised from RM200 to RM250 a month starting next year, Berita Harian reported.

Fisheries Development Authority of Malaysia (LKIM) chairman Muhammad Faiz Fadzil said “LKIM through the state task force committee is investigating the status of each fisherman to ensure the allowance is given to the deserving ones.

“Fishermen who were not chosen to receive the allowance can submit an appeal to LKIM. Each appeal will be carefully examined,” he said.