Memories and family stories related to Flooding.

Salam,

Photo credit to Google

The yearly phenomena of flooding happen again this year with more states and people have been affected. As a Kelantanese, I had some memories and experiences dealing with flood. But I myself have never experienced being trapped or have to moved out from the house because of the flood. I pity those flood victims who have had to move out from their houses and stay in temporary shelters.

Flooding in Kg. Jal Besar (when I was small):

I remember we (my siblings, aunt and youngest uncle) used to "play" and had a great fun during November and December when we can see a lot of water not only in paddy fields but also sometimes on the main road. We used to go on the trip using our sampan, catch some grasshoppers to be eaten for snacks and also just getting to change our clothes over and over again because we were always finding ourselves wet. My late mum scolded  us when she couldn't find some more spare clothes for us when most of our clothes were still wet. 

Flooding in Kubang Kerian (we used to live there until I was form 4)

When we used to live in our house in Kubang Kerian (the place is next to Istana Kubang Kerian), the place was a paradise! There were not so many houses (in 1985 until 1994) near our house and it was surrounded with bushes and basically natural plants. In short, it was not so polluted. That's why every time the place was submerged with flood water, we were happily got playing until my dad scolded us. Sometimes we even took out our small inflatable boat without our parents' permission.  Our house was never submerged with flood water because the base of the house was quite high. Only the small road in front of the house was submerged under water. 

Flooding in Kg. Jal Besar (after we moved back to our grandparents house)

I didn't have so many chances to experience flooding in this house as I would always be in other places either I was still in my university's hostel or in my rented house (after I started to work). Basically, I just heard and saw some photos taken by my siblings when they went back. The house is a double-storey house but the location which is very close to paddy fields (in fact paddy fields are just behind the house) make it prone to be submerged with flood after a heavy downfall or the overflow water from the nearest river. The normal thing to happen almost every year is the small road is submerged. Sometimes, the water will also come into the yard and in some occasions, the water come into the house. There was one year, (can't remember which year), my late mum had to cook in the submerged kitchen with using a torch light and some helps from my younger siblings. They had to use the upper part of the house and some heavy furniture were left and we could see the watermarks after the water receded. 

My condolences to all flood victims this year. I personally reckon we should start to think that we must have some kind of EMERGENCY PLANNING CHECKLIST like in other countries. Sometimes we might think that Malaysia is a safe country and we take that for granted. In the next entry , I will share more about the emergency planning checklist as that is what NZ government thought their citizens. So, I guess it won't hurt us to follow and emulate their plan.