Initial assistance, including flood relief kits, has been provided to 36 flood victims from 10 families in Kampung Kubang Semang, Bukit Mertajam, Bernama reported.
The victims were moved to a temporary relief centre at Sekolah Kebangsaan Seri Penanti after their homes were inundated by heavy rain on the afternoon of 17 October.
Seberang Perai Tengah district officer Datuk Kamarul Haizal Koderat said four classrooms were used to house the evacuees. “So far, only residents in one area, Kampung Kubang Semang, were evacuated. Flooding also occurred in Kampung Mengkuang Titi, but the situation is under control and evacuation is not necessary,” he told reporters after visiting the centre.
The centre, the only one opened in Penang for the floods, began operating at 8.30pm on 17 October, according to Kosmo, and all 36 victims were allowed to return home the next afternoon after the Fire and Rescue Department and the Civil Defence Force found the affected area safe. The centre shut fully at 7pm on 18 October.
Kamarul Haizal, who also chairs the district disaster management committee, said regular monitoring was carried out by the village community management council, the District and Land Office, the Civil Defence Force, the Fire and Rescue Department and the People’s Volunteer Corps (RELA).
Ab Ghani Abdullah, 49, a security guard, said he had moved his car to higher ground before taking his wife and two children to his hometown in Perlis for one night, leaving his motorcycle behind. He returned to find the road to his house under about one metre of water. “Yesterday, a large python was seen around the house,” he said in an account published by NST. “There is also the risk of other venomous animals and short circuits. That is why it is very dangerous to enter the house while the water is still high.”
Khairun Najwa Md Noor, 37, a factory manager, said the flood was the second to hit her home in just over a month. She moved her 78-year-old mother, who has cancer, to the centre so the elderly woman could be near a medical team. “The previous flood reached knee level, and we had not even finished cleaning up when the water rose again yesterday. It is exhausting having to go through all this again,” she said.
Kampung Kubang Semang has flooded repeatedly. Wan Ramlah Wan Ahmad, chairman of the village community management council for Mukim 20, said heavy rain fell for about four hours from 2pm on 17 October, pushing water to waist level in the area near Sungai Kubang Semang before it receded at about 11pm. The village was also flooded on 20 September, when residents did not move to a relief centre.
