When the common man took over from the govt

 

From Daniel Victor

The past weekend has been the most tiring, most emotional roller coaster ride in my life. The stakes were high and so was the water level at Taman Sri Muda, Shah Alam.

I received the distress message on Saturday evening from “a brother” that water had entered their house. After a few moments, it was already at knee level and the flooded roads were impassable.

After a few hours, all the cars on the road were completely submerged.

As I was occupied in the morning, I was only able to travel to Sri Muda in the afternoon after our pastor, Pastor Noah called me.

The trip to Sri Muda was tough as many roads were closed. When I reached Sri Muda, the situation was very tense and emotions were running high.

The line was so bad and there was no internet connection at all. I tried to reach my brother but couldn’t do so. The only way I could communicate with him was through SMS.

He, his wife and three small kids were stranded on the second floor of the house with little water and dry food.

I tried my best to call many boat providers but none came.

While waiting for more boats to arrive, I did what I could by wading through the water to help those coming with the boat. I carried many elderly folk, paralysed men and women, babies, dogs and cats from boat to dry land.

At one point during the rescue, an Indian lady approached me and asked for help to send a boat to her relatives’ home. There were 10 adults with close to 15 children stuck in a flat with no food and water, she said.

The mothers had no choice but to use the toilet water and the flood water to make milk for the babies. I told her we were trying our best but there didn’t seem to be enough boats.

She pleaded and held my feet asking me to help save them. I couldn’t hold back my tears. I told her, we will really try our best to reach them.

Many hours later, more boats arrived and it was still not sufficient as there were many more people who needed to be saved. Many volunteers came with food and water to be sent to those stuck in the flooded homes.

It was getting dark and it was getting more dangerous for rescue operations. I negotiated with one of the boat handlers to go in to rescue my brother and another boat to rescue the Indian lady’s family.

The boat sent to rescue the family was able to pick them all up but the boat sent to my brother’s place couldn’t get through. There were too many stranded cars in the way.

I lost count of the times I tried to send a rescue boat to my brother’s house but none were successful.

Finally, with a heavy heart, I sent an SMS to my brother telling him to hang on for the night and I will surely reach him in the morning. I spent all my remaining energy wading in the water to help those coming in the rescue boats until the wee hours.

While doing so, I learnt that two people who were stuck had died.

We prayed before resting, asking for God’s guidance and for the rain to stop. Early in the morning, the water subsided a little and the sun was warm.

I called my manager and requested a day off. We were able to wade through the water at hip level to reach the Sri Muda Petronas station and the industrial area.

The water there had subsided and there was dry ground but the houses and roads were still filled with water to neck level.

After a while, a rescue boat came with some flood victims and we waded through the waters to reach them.

Again, I tried to talk to the boat handler if he could help me to go to my brother’s house. Immediately he said “hop on and lead the way.” As we tried to get there, I couldn’t recognize the road. Everything was submerged and unfamiliar.

Along the way, we rescued a Malay family (husband, wife and a child). We reached the lane to my brother’s house and we had a bit of trouble manoeuvring in. We reached his house and shouted to him. At last, we were able to rescue all five of them.

In the tiring 48 hours, I’ve learnt an important lesson. No one but us – the common people – can help us.

There were only four fire and rescue personnel trying to help with police officers sitting on their boats doing nothing. It was the people who gave their best, giving all they had to rescue everyone from all different classes, from all different races and from all different religions.

All food and drinking water were brought in by common people, NGOs and associations but none were from any government, be it state or federal. The people stranded needed food and rescue.

Kudos to all the unsung heroes of our people who helped.

The sad part was: Astro Awani interviewed the police officials while they were setting up their base. I assumed the police would be coming over to assist with the rescue operations but none came over during the course of 48 hours.

There were no disaster control centres to coordinate the rescue missions and there were no government agencies there to take charge.

The common people struggled, spent their money, energy and time trying their best to rescue everyone without any partiality.

The government failed to assess the risk and come up with a mitigation plan. It knew there was a risk of flooding. It is high time for the government to make changes in the way it handles disasters. - FMT

Daniel Victor is an FMT reader.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.