KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 27 ― Amid looting reports, the National Security Council (NSC) said today it may resort to dropping in food and drinking water supplies from the air to aid the thousands of stranded flood victims across eight states.
NSC disaster management secretary Mohd Ariff Baharom was quoted by the News Straits Times daily today as saying that airdrops may be the only solution as authorities were unable to enter via boats or helicopters due to the lack of landing of space.
This comes amid earlier reports of flood victims having to resort to looting homes for food and drink, risking unintended confrontations with owners yet to evacuate their property.
“Most of the time, rescuers already know exactly where they (stranded victims) are but the place is either inaccessible or unsafe for them to go due to the strong pull of currents.
“It is a very sad situation. So before we are able to reach them and bring them to safe zones, we can at least provide them with food by doing an airdrop,” Mohd Ariff said was quoted saying.
He said that residents in some areas had been uncooperative to rescuers and had refused to leave their homes.
“When we asked them to evacuate, they were reluctant, so now at critical moments like this it becomes hard. One of our men was even chased away with (a) parang because rescuers did not want to abandon them.”
Earlier this morning, Malay Mail Online reported that some flood victims had began looting homes for supplies.
Ryonn Leong said he was informed about this by his family members who are currently marooned in Kuala Krai.
“Just few minutes ago, there are cases where people are breaking into houses to steal food and valuables too. This are caused mainly by food scarcity,” Leong told Malay Mail Online via text yesterday.
“(The) situation is getting tense as there are areas which people starting to fight for food and loot houses that are empty.”
In wicked irony, one item that is painfully scarce for victims surrounded by the floods is clean water for drinking. According to Leong, one mother in the Kelantan town was now forced to use rainwater to mix the infant formula for her six-month-old.
While some like Leong’s family have managed to find shelter on higher ground, they are cut off from rescuers and have exhausted their supplies. Aside from a lack of water supply, the electricity has been turned off for the past four days.
As at 11am today, 106,340 people have been evacuated from their homes in Terengganu, Kelantan, Pahang, Perak, Johor, Perlis, Selangor, and Kedah.
Five deaths were recorded in Kelantan and two in Terengganu to date, according to data from the National Security Council published on its website.
The extent of the worst flooding in decades has been such that Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, who is overseeing the government’s flood relief efforts, has warned that floods are worse than anticipated, saying that assets currently deployed were inadequate to face the floods of such proportions.
