IN AND OUT RELIEF CENTRES
SCHOOL HALL SECOND HOME FOR MANY
JOHOR BARU: For hundreds of residents at Kampung Laut in Skudai, flood relief centres have become their second homes. They have been evacuated to the centres four times in just four weeks.
Norreha Azahar, 43, said she, her husband and their seven children had been "moving in and out" of the SJK (Chinese) Pu Sze hall in Skudai since Dec 17.
She said that the first time the floods hit their village, it receded within 24 hours but they had to return to the centre due to heavy flooding on Dec 19. Two days later, they returned to clean their homes but on Dec 26, the village was submerged again.
"This time the water subsided within two days but on Jan 11, we were again hit by floods," Norreha said, adding that everything in her house had been washed away.
"I have six school-going children. All their books are gone. My electrical items are also destroyed. What am I going to do now?" she said, adding that they are too poor to move out as her husband was just a lorry driver.
Norreha said she had never experienced such flooding since moving to the village 20 years ago and described the floods as "monster floods."
Another resident Maria Anak Lidis, 26, complained that all her appliances bought on credit, were destroyed.
"We will still have to continue paying for them," said the mother of four who urged the government to speed up the distribution aid.
Another resident, M. Sukumaran, 44, said the Government had promised them low-cost homes in 2001 but until today, they had yet to be resettled.
Gardener Rozzeli Jaafar said the only items he managed to save were his children's schoolbooks.
Rozzeli, who has five children, said the second wave of floods destroyed everything he had salvaged from the first wave.
Gelang Patah MP Tan Ah Heng said 2,132 people were being housed at the school hall.
Source: The Star, 15.01.2007, page N10.