Flood strikes at relief centre, forcing over 300 to move to another shelter

BATU PAHAT – More than 300 flood victims, housed in a temporary relief centre at SJKC Chong Hwa Sri Medan here, will be relocated to another shelter due to a flooding incident since two days ago.

Batu Pahat district police chief Ismail Dollah said all victims will be moved to SJKC Hwa Ming, Taman Maju here last night, using assets from various agencies, among them the Fire and Rescue Department and the Malaysian Armed Forces.

“This (current) relief centre can accommodate 300 people, however, when floodwaters rose to about 0.3m, we decided that they must get out of here,” he said when met here.

Currently, this relief centre is housing 315 individuals from 110 families since it opened on March 2.

One of the victims at the relief centre, Siti Sarah Sulaiman, 35, said floodwaters began to rise at the centre since two days ago, causing her much anxiety.

The mother of three said she was evacuated to the relief centre on Thursday after her house in Parit Simen Sri Basir was inundated with waist-high floodwaters.

“At that time, the relief centre was not flooded but after two days (on Saturday), the water level began to rise.

“I became worried as there was a two-year-old child who wanted to ‘play’ in the (flood) waters,” she said, adding that she was relieved when told they were going to move to another relief centre.

A check by Bernama at Sri Medan Jaya here found the town was paralysed by floods as roads were submerged and were only open to heavy vehicles and four-wheel drives. There were also some houses on Jalan Besar Sri Medan that were still flooded. – Bernama, March 6, 2023