Kajang folk in shock over ‘worst ever floods’

The New Straits Times, Saturday, 3 December 2011

Kajang folk in shock over ‘worst ever floods’

Residents claim they have never experienced such a wet, wet spell

A sales assistant at a shoe shop in Kajang looking at the damage caused by the flash floods in Kajang. Pixs by Rosdan Wahid

Workers at Plaza Metro in Kajang struggling to drain the building’s underground car park yesterday.

RESIDENTS here, still recovering from the unprecedented floods on Friday, are describing the downpour as the heaviest they have ever seen.

 

A Kajang resident, who  identified himself as David, 43, said he had lived in Kajang for 35 years and had never seen such heavy rainfall.

“I don’t think it was a drainage problem or the fact that the river is located near the town. It’s just a matter of nature overwhelming infrastructure,” he said.

Ee Ken Nee, 27, a medical sales consultant on the way to Kajang to see a client, decided to stop his car, due to the pounding rain, minutes away from the flood stricken area.

“I stopped my car because my sixth sense told me that it would get worse, though I had passed through the town earlier at  4pm. It was flooded then, but passable.” \

He said:   “I wanted to leave Kajang as soon as possible and later I heard that the river had overflowed and  submerged most of the town”.

Ee said that it was  at Jalan Sg Chua where he saw the early signs of how disastrous the flood was going to become:  several Perodua Kancil cars were stranded  on the road.

“Many cars  had slowed down. We could see the river overflowing. It happened in a matter of minutes. I felt like I was in a movie scene. It was surreal,” he said, adding that he was lucky not to have been stranded.

A Bata shoe shop owner, Suhaida Abdul Sukur, said she couldn’t estimate her losses until her insurance agent had  assessed it.

“I didn’t expect the water to rise so high so quickly,” she said.

The waist high water trapped nine people, three of them senior citizens, who were rescued by personnel from the Selangor Fire and Rescue Department.

The worst affected areas were Semenyih town, near the road to Bangi Lama, as well as parts of Kajang town, which included  Pasar Besar Kajang, Jalan Sg Jelok, Jalan Kg Sg Kantan, Jalan Semenyih-Kajang, Jalan Kelapa, Jalan Bukit and Jalan Reko.