Thank you, grieving dad tells all who helped bring landslide victims home

 

Melaka governor Ali Rustam (right) with the victims’ family members. (Bernama pic)

ALOR GAJAH: Tai Seng Fui could only utter “thank you” repeatedly after the search and rescue team (SAR) recovered the bodies of four of his family members killed in the Batang Kali landslide.

Tai lost his son Tan Chang Lin, 35, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren in the landslide at the Father’s Organic Farm campsite last Friday.

“A ‘thank you’ to everyone who helped, including the policemen tasked with the solemn journey of transporting the bodies from Kuala Lumpur for the cremation ceremony this morning,” Bernama quoted the 63-year-old Tai as saying when met at Taman Machap Indah in Machap Baru here today.

Earlier today, the bodies of Tan and his wife, Yu Siew Pay, 34, and their two children, seven-year-old boy Tai Jing Key and four-year-old girl Tai Jing Rou, arrived in Melaka from the Sungai Buloh Hospital around 11.32am.

Tai Seng Fui.

The bodies were then taken to the Huai En Memorial Park in Batu Berendam for cremation. The ashes are expected to be brought back to their residence in Taman Machap Indah tomorrow for relatives and friends to pay their respects until Dec 29. The ashes will then be interred at the Eternal Memorial Park in Jasin.

Tai said he was still coming to terms with losing four of his family members in the tragedy.

Meanwhile, Melaka governor Ali Rustam visited the victims’ family accompanied by the unity, information, human resources and consumer affairs committee chairman Ngwe Hee Sem; women’s affairs, family development and welfare committee chairman Kalsom Noordin; and Melaka PKR vice-chairman Ginie Lim.

Ali spent an hour with the family and gave a personal donation to them.

In Batang Kali, Hulu Selangor police chief Suffian Abdullah said the final leg of the search mission involved 97 personnel from the fire brigade, police, army and Malaysian Civil Defence Force, with assistance from nine K9 tracker dogs.

A total of 92 people were affected by the landslide at the Father’s Organic Farm campsite in Gohtong Jaya, near Batang Kali, in the early hours of last Friday. So far, 30 people have died with one victim still unaccounted for. Sixty-one people were rescued.

Suffian said as many as 11 machines were being used in the search for the last victim.- FMT