Back to business for shopping mall tenants affected by flood

 

Water flooded the ground floor of The Mines Shopping Mall, as could be seen in several videos and photos that went viral. Screengrab from social media

SERDANG: Business operators who were affected by the unusually heavy rain which caused the ground floor of the The Mines Shopping Mall to become flooded on Saturday have all resumed operations.

A visit by the New Straits Times today showed that the floor affected by the flooding was mostly occupied by eateries and were located next to the waterway.

Among the outlets which were affected by the 4pm flooding were Esquire Kitchen, Subway, Mixue, Sepiring, Caring Pharmacy, Travel for All, Lazo Diamond and a few other outlets selling clothing and shoes.

One of the business operators, who only wanted to be known as Wong, said she could see the rush of water across the tiles from one corner of the mall and noticed several tenants scrambling to remove their goods which were placed on the floor and the lower racks.

"I immediately alerted my colleague about the situation and we started clearing the items placed on the floor. Fortunately we managed to secure all our things before the water rose to ankle depth in our outlet," she said.

Wong said they had to close earlier, at 7pm, because of the incident.

"We did lose some business because of the flooding but were fortunate that the situation did not worsen," she said.

Nur Farisha Mokhtar, who runs a kiosk, said she had to use a dustpan to remove the excess water from her kiosk enclosure.

"The cleaners and mall workers were also trying to divert the water back into the waterway and fortunately when the rain slowed down, things quickly improved.

"Despite the situation improving by 7.30pm, I decided that it would be better for me to close up shop and concentrate on reorganising my items," she said.

Nur Farisha said she saw workers from some of the eateries just standing with their hands crossed, outside their outlets, looking helpless.

An eatery operator who did not want to be named said the floodwater had most likely not come from the canal that runs through the centre of the mall because the water level there remained as usual.

"I went to inspect where the water was coming from and that's when I noticed it was not from the Mines lake or the canal. This was rainwater, clear and overwhelming, entering faster than the mall's drainage could push it out," he said.

During the visit, the NST also noticed that one of the elevators closest to where the water entered through was still under maintenance, believed to be as a result of Saturday's flooding.

Meanwhile, the mall's management in a statement said it had resumed operation on the same day at 7.30pm.

It confirmed that most flood affected areas were in the South Zone on Level 1.

"The safety and comfort of shoppers and tenants remain a top priority," it said.

The management also extended its apologies for any inconvenience the incident may have caused, without elaborating on what may have caused the flooding.

It is also learnt that similar flooding had taken place at the mall more than a decade ago.

Videos of the incident had gone viral on social media. - NST