Kuala Lumpur and nearby areas hit by flash floods, landslide
KUALA LUMPUR – Severe flash flooding triggered by early morning heavy rain inundated Malaysia’s capital and its surrounding areas on Oct 15, causing a Parliament session to be temporarily suspended and triggering a landslide in Taman Melawati, a suburb on the north-eastern outskirts of the city.
Malaysia’s most prestigious public university, Universiti Malaya, located a 20-minute drive from the city centre, was also not spared from the rising waters.
Video footage posted on social media showed fast-flowing water flooding campus roads, while another widely shared video showed kindergarten pupils in Gombak, Selangor, standing on tables as the water rose around them.
The Klang Valley area, which includes Kuala Lumpur, has seen unseasonably heavy rain in the past couple of weeks, several weeks ahead of the usual November to January monsoon season.
CCTV footage from Kuala Lumpur City Hall’s (DBKL) transport information system showed several flooded roads in the city.
Severe traffic disruption was observed in major trunk roads into the city, such as Jalan Perak, Jalan Travers (near Bangsar) and the Sultan Iskandar Highway.
DBKL readings from the Pusat Bandar (downtown KL) weather station showed more than 114mm of rainfall in an hour, compared with an average of 60mm an hour for most of the year in the capital city.
In Parliament, Speaker Johari Abdul had to call a temporary halt to proceedings as several MPs were held up by floods affecting Jalan Parlimen and the surrounding roads. The session, scheduled to start at 10am, was postponed by half an hour.
Ms Husna Alyaa Mohd Annuar, a 36-year-old bank employee working near the Petronas Twin Towers, a few kilometres from the House of Parliament, told The Straits Times that she had seen the water levels rising as she was driving to work at around 9am.
But the immediate area around the skyscrapers was not affected.
In Taman Melawati, Assistant Commissioner Mohd Azam Ismail, chief of the Ampang Jaya police district, said they received a report at 10.30am about the landslide in an old section of the township.
“Twenty terraced houses have been cut off because of the landslide. A parked car in one of the houses and a guardhouse have been damaged. No casualties have been reported,” he said in a statement.
“Everyone affected by the landslide has been moved to a multipurpose hall on (nearby) Jalan E5 in Taman Melawati,” he said, adding that the police, fire department and Ampang Jaya Municipal Council officers have been deployed to the scene.
Mr Shamsher Singh Gill, a freelance media consultant, told ST that he found out about the landslide from the neighbourhood WhatsApp group at around 10am.
“When I visited the site, the police told us that they are concerned that another landslide will occur if the rain doesn’t stop, as there is still water flowing at the hilltop,” said the 46-year-old.
Ms Rozanna M. Rosly, a master’s degree student at Universiti Malaya, said that as a result of the floods, her classmates requested that their class, which runs from 6pm to 9pm, be held online on Oct 15.
“How are we supposed to go to class with the floods? A few of my classmates walk to class, but where can (drivers) park? It’s dangerous for us to attend our class physically,” she said.
Ms Rozanna said her lecturer told the class they could attend the lesson physically or online, but the university’s administration did not disclose whether any other classes had been cancelled.
In Gombak district, Selangor, at the eastern edge of KL, Facebook user Aji Yusop shared a video of pupils standing on tables in the Tabika Kemas kindergarten, in Kampung Klang Gate, to escape the rising water.
“Dear God, the teachers and children are trapped by the floods. Please help them. May they be safe,” he said.
The Fire and Rescue Department sent a team to evacuate the pupils and four teachers after receiving a report of the incident at 10.28am.
“We have instructed the residents in four houses in the affected area to vacate to a nearby hall, while the 21 pupils at the kindergarten have been returned to their parents,” said Selangor Fire and Rescue Department deputy operations director Ahmad Mukhlis Mokhtar in a statement.
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