First, credit where credit is due: kudos to MCA for acting fast and effectively in Kota Tinggi. And I didn’t get this from news reports (huh..) but from the small number of people in various Tamans in Kota Tinggi. Apparently, MCA people had organized boats and such and started evacuating everybody, regardless of creed or colour. Food parcels were also handed out to everyone, again regardless of creed or colour(1). I’d rather not be cynical about the help offered: it’s not fair.
It began raining again on Thursday. Friday was no better. I was in KT by afternoon, and found myself spending an hour and a half pacifying a client who was mightily pissed off by my colleague. By the time I finished with another client, I received word that the waters were rising. By this morning, KT town had become inaccessible to traffic, so finding my way around was a little challenging and fun.
Fun ended after about 3.30pm. Thinking I could be home by five for once over these past few weeks, I drove along my merry way… only to find the road leading back to Johor Bahru had become blocked off by yet another landslide. That wasn’t encouraging. I then spent the next two hours looking for a way out of KT. I didn’t heed the advisory, apparently, and so found myself caught between Kulai and Kota Tinggi with flood waters rising very fast.
By 6.30pm, there were no more exits from Kota Tinggi. I drove through one flooded area along the Kota Tinggi-Kulai road, but couldn’t pass through the next. By that time, it was already dark and I didn’t want to risk driving off a collapsed bit of road. Fortunately, by about 9.45pm, JKR had sufficiently cleared the road to allow traffic to pass through.
Kudos to JKR and the Police for doing the needful and necessary.
In the meantime, I received news that Pandan and Kangkar Tebrau in JB had completely flooded over. Waters had receded by the time I reached those areas, and the Police were directed traffic effectively. The Pasir Gudang highway, however, was completely jam-packed.
Some photos and such, but none as dramatic as the ones you’ll see in the papers today.
One of the many landslides on the way to Kota Tinggi. I should’ve taken the hint. I almost slammed into one while driving back to JB, at about 9.00pm. Dangerous.
Fresh floods at the tail end of Jalan Mempelam, Tmn Kota Jaya. This was when I realized I really needed to get out of Kota Tinggi…!
About 6 kilometers after turning into the Kota Tinggi-Kulai road, drivers are confronted by this.
Just a short clip of the blocked access.
Long story short:
- A stranger I was helping a few days ago called me yesterday about 1.00pm, warning me to stay away from Kota Tinggi. By 2.30pm, water had reached up to about 2 feet in Taman Desa Riang. By 3.30pm, this friend was uncontactable.
- Kluang was completely flooded over, and the road from Kota Tinggi to Kluang was blocked by flood waters. A friend was trapped there, only reaching JB by 2.00am.
This second wave of floods means far more work than we can handle. There’s always a price to pay, I suppose. ;)
- I’m not saying much, but I suppose I’m saying a lot in terms of what I’m not saying. I was incensed yesterday after hearing some stories. But for fear of making accusations based on actual, verbal testimony rather than recorded footage, I’ll keep my peace. (↩)
Comments (6)
No sound and f*cks this time, eh? :P Hope that you are fine. I can tell it is not fun at all to be dealing with muddy dirty water all the time.
The muddy water isn’t really a problem (it’s usually not there when I’m in KT). The difficult part is dealing with frustrated, distressed people who’ve lost everything: they tend to be on-the-edge quite often.
hmmm only now u pnged this post?
=D
ugh.. something’s wrong with wordpress’s pingback function. :(
i am affected by this flooding.my house was in deep water- about 9ft.i lost my life time savings, my cars were drowned,all i can say is i am ALIVE, i will rebuilt my house, life again…..i pray for the strenght to go on………..
Drainage and dredging works are being sped up from what I hear - but I hope this isn’t a matter of too little too late.
Start making preparations now to safeguard your property, just in case! :(
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all it could do to provide flood victims assistance, promised an extra RM500 (USD142.245) aid to each affected family. A foster village programme was launched to assist flood victims too and Malaysians are called upon to contribute generously. Blogger xpyre was stuck at one of the worst affected area Kota Tinggi before authority cleared one of the exit to allow traffic to pass through. Blogger Linken Lim (Hey. thanks bros’) who was stuck at one of the affected area, did a round-up on the recurring
started with a literal bang. First in Bangkok, and then a civilian plane had to disappear from radars over Indonesia, Al Qaeda inspired terrorists wanted to disrupt the ASEAN Summit in Cebu, the deluge brought in by the North East Monsoon that brought floods to Johor, North Sumatra and Sabah…etc etc. There were enough mini-crises to give me a rolling start to the new year. I’ve already fulfilled some of my KPI even before January was over. I’m not overwhelmed with work, just that I
promised an extra RM500 (USD142.245) aid to each affected family. A foster village programme was launched to assist flood victims too and Malaysians are called upon to contribute generously. Blogger xpyre was stuck at one of the worst affected area Kota Tinggi before authority cleared one of the exit to allow traffic to pass through. Blogger Linken Lim who was stuck at one of the affected area, did a round-up on the recurring situation
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[...] floods in kota tinggi: second wave Kluang was completely flooded over, and the road from Kota Tinggi to Kluang was blocked by flood waters. A friend was trapped there, only reaching JB by 2.00am. This second wave of floods means far more work than we can handle. … Related: • floods • in • kota • tinggi • second • wave [...]
[...] floods in kota tinggi: second wave but from the small number of people in various Tamans in Kota Tinggi. … This was when I realized [...]
[...] floods in kota tinggi: second wave Fresh floods at the tail end of Jalan Mempelam, Tmn Kota Jaya. This was when I realized I really needed to get out of Kota Tinggi?! Water everywhere! … Technorati Tags: floods, johor bahru, kota tinggi, malaysia, mca … Related: • floods • in • kota • tinggi • second • wave [...]
[...] 部è½å®¢xpyre在影å“最深的地区哥打ä¸å®œå—困，直到当局清ç†å‡ºä¸€ä¸ªå‡ºå£ï¼Œå¹¶å…许æ¢å¤äº¤é€šï¼Œä»–æ‰å¾—以离开。部è½å®¢Linken Lim也被困在å—到洪水影å“çš„åŒºåŸŸï¼Œå†™äº†ä¸€ç¯‡æ–‡ç« è°ˆè¿™ä¸æ–é‡å¤å‘生的状况，并也é€è¿‡å‘表了å¦ä¸€ä½éƒ¨è½å®¢Marina Mahathir需è¦å…¬ä¼—æ助的消æ¯ã€‚ [...]
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