Saturday, December 14, 2013

Worst Flood in Kemaman


The year 2013 has a WET ending in Kemaman ,the town where I live. It was reported that more than 20 inches of rain fell between 1 Dec to 3 Dec in the interiors of Ulu Jabor(source infobanjir) and it was raining almost non stop for a couple of days. For me when I fly offshore we have to go through stretches of heavy rain.Have a look at this video to get an idea of the heavy rain.

The first sign of flooding was on the evening of 3 Dec. Coupled with the high tide (full moon) at around mid night and the abundance of rain water flowing down the Kemaman River and Chukai River water soon spilled the river banks.Very soon the roads in Kemaman town were flooded.
My printing shop located in Taman Chukai Utama was under 3 ft of water. We had been doing business in this place for more than 17 years and this is the first time it gets flooded. In fact during 1986 when there was a big flood this area was relatively unaffected.

  

Some of the houses across the road were flooded to the roof!

  
The Fire and Rescue services staion in Kemaman itself was under water. If there had been a fire at the same time, forget about the fire engines!
 


 The flood lasted 3 days and at the end of it it was a haert break to see the machines. This is my Polar 82 cutter..

Our business documentations and accounts for both my shops and business transactions were covered with flood water and mud. We tried to salvage as much records as possible but in the end had to throw it away as it starts to rot!

 Our Die Cutting machine..


and a 10 months old Hamada Offset machine were badly damaged. Most of the items in the shop are insured and I believe most of the machines would need to be written off so it is a bad day for the insurers too.