KOTA KINABALU – The recent floods in Penampang have left many shop owners in Donggongon to deal with the aftermath and muddy mess in their premises.
“The flood this time was higher than last year’s floods,” said the proprietor of the Hai Fang Trading sundry shop, only known as Madam Long.
She said the floodwaters started to rise at Saturday midnight and continued on Sunday at her shop area.
“In the end the water was about knee-high deep in the shop,” she said.
“Luckily we had learnt our lesson from past years’ floods and moved our goods to a higher level due to incessant heavy rains the whole day earlier.
“As such we didn’t lose as much merchandise compared with last year, but we are still left with having to clean up the thick mud.”
Long said since the year 2000, the Donggongon area has been experiencing almost perennial flooding.
“We hope the government can do something to fix the flooding situation here, as we did not have flooding almost every year before then,” she said.
Long said she and her colleagues were unable to do much to move the shop’s large and heavy items like fridge coolers and chest freezers, which were flooded.
“So we have to wait for them to dry before we try restarting them. I hope they can still work or we may have to call a repairman.”
Hardware store owner Alice Yee said her Tai Lee hardware shop which was not affected by previous floods saw about three inches of flood water entering this time.
“The water entered at around midnight Saturday and on Sunday. We heard there was flooding but were unable to check on our shop due to the impassable flooded roads,” she said.
She said they were only able to reach their shop the next morning.
“We took half a day to clean the mud and remove the flood debris,” she said.
“Some boxes of heavier machinery items such as lawnmowers that were left on the shop floor have sustained water damage and the contents would have to be left out to dry.”
Alice said if it was not for the nearby Megalong mall underground parking, the water level would have been much higher at the Donggongon shops.
“It could have been much deeper if not for the underground parking.”
Checks at the nearby Megalong Mall underground showed the water being drained away with water jets by the mall staff. – The Vibes, January 20, 2021
