‘Only three-day storm warning’

 

Digital edge: Khairul (centre) and Helmi (right) showing the resources available at the Disaster Control Centre at the Special Malaysian Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team (SMART) programme to the media, in Puchong, Selangor. — Bernama

PUTRAJAYA: Early warnings on possible major floods can only be issued about three days in advance, says the Malaysian Meteorological Department (MetMalaysia).

Its director-general Muhammad Helmi Abdullah said the current technology and prediction modules allow for a prediction to be made between one and three days before the event of heavy rainfall.

“There is no way for us to predict whether it (floods) is going to happen at the end, middle of November or in which month.

“The only thing we know is that there will be four to six monsoon surges (that cause continuous rain), which will happen between November this year and March next year, and we can provide an alert as early as three days or at least a day before the event.

“There is no scientific method to predict major floods as early as several months before that,” he said during a briefing programme of the Technical Agencies and Disaster Management Committee Secretariat with the media at the Special Malaysian Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team (SMART) headquarters in Pulau Meranti here yesterday.

He was commenting on several media reports which said that there would be a major flood at the end of November this year.

While Muhammad Helmi did not rule out the possibility of major floods happening at the end of the year, the extent of the flooding and the areas that may be affected remain unknown for the time being.

He said Malaysia would experience the same amount of rain as last year.

“However, the amount of rainfall alone does not mean that the country will experience a similar magnitude of floods compared to what happened last year.

“We need to understand that even though we may have the same amount of rainfall, the impact will still be different because the periods of rainfall, for example, may be different,” he said.

Nadma deputy director Datuk Khairul Shahril Idrus, who also attended the programme, said Malaysia was expected to experience the north-east monsoon season from November this year until March next year.

Kelantan, Terengganu and Pahang are expected to be hit by heavy rains in November and December this year, while Johor, Sabah and Sarawak are expected to have heavy rainfall from December until January next year.

“A few states, however, are expected to experience less rain in January until March 2023,” he said, adding that they were Perlis, Kedah, Penang and Kelantan.

He said more than 6,000 temporary flood relief centres, which can accommodate up to 1.6 million people, had been identified.

Khairul said relevant agencies had engaged the community as well as non-governmental organisations to prepare for the north-east monsoon season.

Meanwhile, Irrigation and Drainage Department (DID) director-general Datuk Dr Md Nasir Md Noh said upgrade work had been carried out on about 300 of over 500 flood warning sirens nationwide.

“We are increasing the audio power of the sirens. And from now, the two-minute long siren will be followed bry an announcement,” he said of the sirens, which are installed at critical flood areas throughout the country.

“Engagement sessions and siren sounding tests have been carried out with the cooperation of residents in some areas,” he added.

He said security features such as flood gates and water reservoirs in areas near rivers, dams and beaches as well as municipalities had also been improved. - Star