Monday, November 9, 2009

Gray Skies, Rising Waters

For the first time, I saw my work place being converted into a relief centre. Arrived at school this morning to find this... blankets, carpets hanging to dry on the raillings! Yesterday night 40+ flood evacuees made their way to our classrooms. This will be their temporary home until the flood waters recede. A whole floor had been cleared as makeshift 'home'.
Flood
A shirtless pakcik was seen walking around the school in the morning and it was rather amusing... to see impropriety co-existing side by side with strict dressing codes. LOL!

Water level has been rising and in some low lying areas, the river banks have burst. Many villages are now technically flooded. This morning as I was driving to work, I noticed that many of the areas beside the river are now inundated. And in the evening, as I drove back from town the river in town is also definitely higher than the day before. In some places it is near breaching point. Hopefully it'll subside.

In the morning, one of my colleagues said her house in the kampung was already surrounded by water the night before. At noon the water level was still rising. Places like Langgar now look like lakes. And the water continues to flow from 'upstream' unabated. It seems Hatyai is also experiencing some flooding now. The last round of a bad flood was in 2005. Then, Jitra town literally became like New Orleans as it also sits in a bowl. That year, the flood was without rain. In a matter of hours, the whole town was flooded.

Anyway, experts are warning that the worse may yet to come as the strong Siberian winds from the north are expected to blow in more rains.
Flood
This was lunch time. I feel sorry for the evacuees. The new toilets in this new block don't function properly. They broke down within the first year of operations.... speaks volumes about the quality of our construction work, especially gahmen related projects.
crumbs
But this once, Sekolahku is indeed Rumahku. How can one tell? All along the stairways, I see a trail of biscuit crumbs. Small children and their trails.... LOL!

2 comments:

Sia Mooi said...

The rain is real bad this year....my chr basement flooded twice the past two wks. Fren's hse also flooded. Worried bout my mother in law's old hse...just next to the river.

PreciousPearl said...

oh dear, is it the rainy season already? looks bad for low lying areas.

Broken?

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