This...after only 2 hours of rain!
Published on: Tuesday, November 03, 2015
Kota Kinabalu: Flashfloods caused by heavy rains that fell non-stop about two hours from 2pm hit parts of the State Capital and Penampang, Monday, causing traffic jams.Motorists blamed the flooding on clogged and poor drainage and the Meteorological Department collected 31.6ml of rain. It said a divergence of winds occurred during the change of the northeast wind monsoon and caused a convergence of clouds over parts of the West Coast as low pressure areas were detected over the coastal areas here until Sarawak. ADVERTISEMENT This could be the reason of the sudden heavy rainfall in the city, while more rainfall could have happened in the interior divisions, the department said. It is also believed to be the tail end of typhoon Koppu."More rainfall can be expected until (Tuesday) but wet conditions can continue until Nov 4. "Dark clouds formation have been spotted during the weekend, indicating rain may fall over the next couple of days," the department said. In PENAMPANG, the water rose after just one hour of rain starting at 1 pm. Worst hit was the same Kibabaig-Minintod road now flooded with mud from the same hill inspected by District Officer Luvita Koisun a week ago.ADVERTISEMENT The PWD maintenance contractor finished digging out the mud from the roadside drains – just to be filled again in an hour. Apparently the hill owner who is a Putatan District Councillor had done nothing since Luvita gave him instructions last Sunday as even rubble were spilling over the road from the same hill opposite a village restaurant called Simbayan.Luvita herself could not reach the area because the road was already under about two feet of water, as was the entrance to her office at Mini Secretariat.
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Opposition Member of Parliament for Penampang, Darell Leiking, took the opportunity to raise in Parliament what he termed as failure of the Government to address the perennial scourge in his constituency even when it had Barisan Nasional elected representatives.In his speech in Parliament, Monday, Leiking said: "Flooding has been an almost yearly affair for us in Penampang for decades now. Even the District Office is flooded, Taman-Taman like Country Shangrila at Kg Minintod, Donggongon Township and roads in Nambazan are all flooded right now and happening again and again during the year."He questioned why both the Federal and State Governments have failed to resolve the people's woes. "What has happened to the flood mitigation plan which was proudly announced and awarded in June this year?" he queried while urging the Government to attend to his Constituency's pressing needs.According to Leiking, roads all over the Penampang Parliamentary Constituency like those at Kg Kondohon Ramayah, Kodundungan, Lomunu and Kibabaig have remained in a deplorable state for decades now. "Their state of disrepair causes many of my constituents to suffer time and time again," he lamented. Concerned residents kept Darrell posted about the situation until nightfall. Angry residents blamed the overflow on irresponsible hill-cutting activities.A perpetually problematic area was the inundated entrance to Taman Country Shangrila at Kg Minintod, here, causing residents to be stranded for hours after work."Apparently, mud and stones from the hill in the vicinity clogged the drainage system, thus causing excess rainwater to flood the entrance to the housing estate," residents bemoaned their predicament in their chat group. By 8pm, they were advised by neighbours against attempting to enter Taman Country Shangrila unless they had four-wheel drives. "What about those without these vehicles? How do we get out to go to work?" asked a resident.One message read: "At the junction, the water level is very deep for a long distance until it reaches the culvert. It's above knee-deep."Wait for a couple of hours for the water to subside. Water seems to be flowing down from the hills beyond Lorong 3 (of Taman Country Shangrila). "It is happening right across the junction from the hill opposite that has been levelled."Said a frustrated lady: "We have a home but we can't go home after work. If there is incessant rain, we will be stranded for days." Some waded through knee-deep waters along Lorong 1 of the housing estate in order to get home.In SANDAKAN, trees were uprooted in several locations here during heavy rain and strong winds on Sunday. Nobody was reported hurt. In one incident, an uprooted tree crashed on the kitchen and bedroom portion of a house in Kg Sibugal Besar, Mile 10, here, at about midnight on Monday. Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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Sandakan branch Civil Defence Department via its Bravo Squad, rushed to the scene to assist after receiving a distress call from MERS 999A total of five JPAM personnel arrived at the scene at about 12.41pm and assisted in removing the tree. The operation ended at about 1.50pm.