Floods: Woman, two kids trapped at friend’s house for two days

SHAH ALAM: Leisure plans to spend the night with a good friend over the weekend turned into a bitter memory for a mother of two when she was trapped at her friend’s house for two days due to the floods.

Recounting her experience of facing a flood for the first time in her life, Hana Shaari, 33, said when she arrived at her friend’s house in Kampung Baru Hicom near here last Saturday, the rain was already quite heavy.

“At that time, I brought my children along with the intention of spending time with a friend, but little did we know that we would be trapped together due to the floods,” she told Bernama today.

She said her friend, who is still single, was living on the upper floor of a townhouse, while the ground floor was occupied by the friend’s relatives.

“It rained non-stop and I saw the water rising so fast… it was at calf level at about 6pm and continued to rise, submerging the lower floor of the townhouse at late midnight,” she recalled, adding that her friends’ relatives also took shelter with them.

Hana said she managed to contact her husband to inform him of the dire situation and asked him to find a way to take them out of the area.

However, she said her husband was also in a bind because their own house in Balakong was also inundated.

To make matters worse, she said the housing area was cut off from electricity supply and suffered telecommunication service disruptions, and some residents even used swimming floats to cross to higher areas to buy necessities and food.

Commenting further, Hana said the fire brigade was seen in the area, but no assistance could be rendered as the rescue team was believed to be concentrating on rescuing the residents in Taman Sri Muda who were severely affected by the floods.

“My friends who knew about our situation tried to contact boat owners conducting volunteer work to rescue us here and the boat finally arrived at about 7pm yesterday,” said Hana, who is currently putting up at her aunt’s house in Putrajaya.

Although her car was submerged in the floodwaters, Hana was thankful that they were all safe in the disaster but was disappointed because many other victims in the area could not evacuate due to limited assistance at that time.

-Bernama