PUTRAJAYA, Jan 15 ― The National Security Council (NSC) has compared the recent floods that ravaged Kelantan to the tsunami that hit Japan following the 2011 Tohuku earthquake and which led to the worst nuclear accidents since Chernobyl.
NSC secretary Datuk Mohamed Thajudeen Abdul Wahab pointed out that Japan, despite all their preparations, still encountered huge challenges when the country was hit by the earthquake and resultant tsunami that reportedly killed almost 20,000 people and struck the Fukushima nuclear plant in northeast Japan.
“Nobody expected the floods in Kelantan to be of that severe magnitude,” Thajudeen told Malay Mail Online in an exclusive interview at his office yesterday.
He highlighted Manek Urai, Kampung Manjur and Kampung Karangan in Kelantan as among the worst-hit areas during the floods that inundated the east coast of the peninsula, with houses and villages in ruins.
“The worst was on the 26th of December. That was the peak of the disaster when everything went off, especially in Kelantan. We never anticipated or thought we'd reach a situation where it becomes impossible to communicate both ways,” Thajudeen said.
The height of the floods on December 26 saw some 202,000 victims displaced, according to Thajudeen.
He said the floods in Kelantan on Boxing Day, coincidentally the same day as the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that killed some 230,000 people, had cut off electricity and phone lines. The heavy rain and strong winds also prevented helicopters and boats from accessing the state.
“We need to engage more with the telcos and service providers on how they can improve the systems so when you face a disaster of that magnitude, the system does not collapse,” said the NSC official.
But the lines of communications were not the only things that failed.
According to Thajudeen, the floods had been so severe that they caused the collapse of the Kelantan District Office that was in charge of disaster management, preventing the NSC from coordinating and receiving information from them.
“Even if I have 50 or 100 officers down there, if I call everybody in the whole country to be there in Kota Baru, but if you can't communicate with them there, what can you do?” Thajudeen questioned, referring to the Kelantan state capital.
He also said there were initially problems coordinating with Kelantan authorities until Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin formed a joint committee, noting that the opposition state ruled by PAS had a different way of running things.
The floods that struck the east coast of peninsular Malaysia last month were the worst in the country in decades, displacing hundreds of thousands from their homes.
