KUALA SELANGOR – Villagers in Kg Bestari Jaya spent four days in darkness waiting for help as they watched the destructive flood swept through the village last Saturday.
Hungry and scared, the villagers found themselves without electricity and water supply.
Help only came on Tuesday from a group of social media influencers and young executives who took upon themselves to drive through the muddy roads to bring much-needed food and basic necessities.
The group found out about the villagers’ plight after speaking with Universiti Selangor (Unisel) student Nureen Auni Izzati Ishak on Monday. Unisel is less than 10km from the village.
She said the volunteer group arrived on Monday night at the university to deliver supplies, including food, drinking water, and hygiene and sanitary products.
In light of the heavy flood, the premises were cut off from power and we could barely communicate with others to call for help. Luckily, one volunteer group found out about our condition. They could have arrived here a little bit earlier if it weren’t for the floodwaters and blackout.”
Ezrynn Eddy, who represented the volunteer group that includes her brother Ezzat Eddy, said their aid was made possible with the help of information gleaned from Twitter.
“We found out about how dire the situation is in Kuala Selangor thanks to our friends and my brother’s followers,” she said.
“To our surprise, no one had yet to mobilise any aid mission there. So, we quickly gathered some public donations. Then, a couple of friends were so kind as to offer their 4x4 vehicles and drove us to the location.
“We don’t have the right vehicle to bring everyone out of the area. So, we only did what we could given our capabilities – that is to bring them as much supplies as possible.”
Consuming expired food as a last resort
Ezrynn said the situation at the village was dire, as some people were forced to consume expired food while waiting for help.
“I couldn’t hold back my tears, Ezzat had to pull me away.
The pakcik (uncle) told me the villagers had to ration their food supply with others because we were the first group of volunteers to step into the village to deliver aid. Mind you, this was on Tuesday night.
“No one else came, not even the authorities. I was shocked and angry.”
The volunteers launched their initiative on Sunday. Since then, through the collective efforts of these eight friends, they have received around RM10,000 cash donation from the public.
However, they do not plan to stop until every group of victims they could reach out to has received the help they need.
“We will keep on monitoring our social media feed and cross check for any relevant information,” Ezrynn said.
“I think we can see there are so many of our friends out there who are volunteering to help the flood victims too, but I know the help is never enough. We are doing this because we realise that there are so many flood victims out there.
“So, we need more volunteers and donations to cover more ground.”
On Monday, it was reported that some 500 villagers were trapped in Kg Bestari Jaya, with 250 inundated houses.
The villagers could not leave as the main access road was submerged in 2m-deep waters. – The Vibes, December 24, 2021
