BUKIT MERTAJAM, Nov 5 — For many residents in Bukit Mertajam, the torrential rainfall that started yesterday caused the worst flooding in perhaps 35 years.
Contractor Oui Chin Kia, 31, said floodwaters began flowing into his home in Taman Manis, around 1am.
“The rains had lashed the whole state for the whole of Saturday,” he said when met here today.
“There were times when it was heavy and times when it slowed down for a while but it didn’t stop until today. We’ve never seen anything like it before.”
Fellow Taman Manis resident Khor Lee Heng, 52, said this was the worst flood he had experienced in 35 years of living in the area.
“It’s one of those situations where you don’t know what to do.
“We don’t know how much we’ve lost and how much we’ll have to clean and fix. And we don’t know if the rains are coming back,” he said.
Nurhafizah Abd Rahman, 32, who was one of over 300 residents moved to the Seberang Perai Tengah district office relocation centre, echoed Khor’s sentiments.
Nurhafizah, her husband and her four young sons moved to the centre after the floodwaters began rising rapidly in the middle of the night.
“The house we rented in Lorong Nangka has a small wall on the front porch, but it wasn’t enough to keep the waters out.
“The waters rose from ankle level to chest level in only two hours. We saved some of our things by moving it to the upper floor but many of our other goods are gone.
“All the houses along our road are underwater. We’ve never seen anything like it,” she related.
Padang Lalang assemblyman Chong Eng said around 600 of her constituents had been evacuated from their homes on Saturday.
“Some of the residential areas here were not hit badly by floods since flood mitigation projects were completed in 2007 and 2015 respectively.
“But this is extremely serious. Around 50 per cent of my constituency is underwater,” she added.
For residents of Kampung Rawa, Sungai Pinang, they are used to flooding each time it rains, but have seen devastating floods recently where water rose to chest level.
Electrical contractor Fizan Shahar said he had been staying in the area for more than 30 years and each time it rains, the water would not go beyond the leg level.
“But in the last two months, water from flood had reached chest level,” he said.
Speaking to Malay Mail when met at Kampung Rawa here yesterday, Fizan said flooding had been getting worse in the area of late.
Fizan said most of his personal items, that were kept at his grandmother’s house opposite his parents house here, had been destroyed due to flood.
“Water started to rise at about 1.30am and receded about noon,” he said.
Meanwhile, Kampung Rawa JKKK secretary S. Uvarajan said some 30 local residents banded together to distribute food and drinks to people affected by flood.
“We sent them food twice since Friday,” he said, adding that mamak shops also ran out of food.
