KUALA KANGSAR, Jan 3 — Broken muddied furniture, clothes and electrical items lined the narrow dirt paths in several villages here as villagers started cleaning up after flood waters receded.
One of them, Amir Muhari, 48, waded through shin-high water to his home on a patch of slightly higher ground, just high enough to help him throw out items he can no longer use.
So far, he has thrown out a broken sofa set, a cupboard and stacks of muddied clothes. They sit haphazardly on the road shoulder.
“Everything in my house is gone after so many days submerged in the muddy water,” the gardener said, wading back to throw out more muddied belongings.
He washed the floors of his home yesterday but the water crept higher overnight, undoing his efforts.
This morning, he spent several hours with the help of a friend to clean up the floor and the walls again.
Kampung Sayong Tebing village head Badri Mat Isa said the affected villagers are still not allowed to go home but many make a dash during the daytime to start cleaning up.
“Many of them don’t have a place to sleep since their homes are covered in mud and their furniture all destroyed so they will still sleep in the relief centres,” he said.
Over in Kampung Senggang, nasi lemak seller Wan Hasnah Hassan, 48, was at a loss as to where to start cleaning up.
“I don’t even know where to start cleaning, all my furniture and things are broken and covered in mud, my floor and walls are all muddy and damp,” she said as she surveyed the brown sludge on the walls and floor of her single-storey house.
Returning to her house after eight days at the relief centre, she was shocked by the damage wrought by the flood.
“The water went up to chest level so almost everything I didn’t bring with me is damaged,” she said.
She said it will probably take at least a week to fully clear out her home, throw out everything and clean it up.
“I don’t even know when I can start selling nasi lemak again since all my cooking items are also damaged,” she said.
Badri estimated the losses faced by each house ranges from RM10,000 to RM15,000 depending on the severity of the water levels in different areas.
“All village heads will have to come up with a list of affected houses and the estimated losses to submit to the welfare department once the water has fully subsided,” he said.
More than 2,200 villagers near Sungai Perak in this small royal town here were evacuated in the past 10 days due to floods.
In these two days, the water has subsided and more than half have returned home to start cleaning up.
