TUMPAT, Dec 31 — The floods have finally receded here, allowing victims, cut off from communication and supplies, to step out from their shelters in search of food.

Mohd Zainudin Ismail, 34, said he and his family of five from Taman Desa Jambu rationed food to a point they were eating mouldy bread.

“Whatever we could eat, we ate,” he said.

“We kept bread until it was mouldy and still tasted good.

“We were stuck here from Tuesday and it wasn’t until the following Monday that we saw the water levels go down.”

Zainudin said more than 1,200 people resorted to seeking shelter at a nearby school, Sekolah Kebangsaan Kok Pasir, which was not a designated evacuation centre.

“We had nowhere else to run, we had to go there anyway,” he said.

“It was not a designated centre, so we didn’t receive any aid in food or kind.

Everyone just shared what we had among ourselves, rationing without knowing how long we would be here,” he said.

After the water receded, he was put in charge of going out and getting food for the many hungry mouths.

“I’m out alone, but I managed to get in touch with friends outside of Tumpat to help us buy food and they are walking back with me to my town to bring the food here,” he said.

Zainuddin blamed relief efforts for not going out to find them.

He said supply missions would stop at particular checkpoints and because SK Kok Pasir was not an official evacuation centre, nothing was brought to them.

Mohamad Fazwan, 19, who was out to get petrol, affirmed Zainuddin’s opinion despite himself having stayed in a designated centre.

“Housing areas close to SK Kampung Laut, where I stayed, have more affluent residents,” he said.

So we had boats and walkie talkies to communicate, then go out and get supplies from particular relief mission checkpoints.” 

“I don’t think it is right, because I know evacuation centres deeper in Tumpat had to ration what they had to survive.” 

Another resident, identified as Wan, 31, was frustrated with how some places, even when they received food, were selective with who got it.

“Some overcrowded centres took in more people than the capacity of the centre and chose to distribute food only to their friends, using the excuse that others were not registered there to deny them food,” he said.