Two PPS set up after flash flood hits Penang mainland

BUKIT MERTAJAM: Two temporary relief centres (PPS) have been set up after the continuous heavy rain on Friday (Nov 11) evening left many neighbourhoods here flooded.

Bukit Tengah assemblyman Gooi Hsiao Leung said the heavy rain started at around 4pm and added that a few places here experienced flash floods at about 6pm.

“The worst-hit areas are Taman Mangga and Taman Sentul Jaya. The water rose and several main roads including Jalan Bukit Minyak, Jalan Kota Permai and Jalan Kebun Nanas were filled with water,” he said.

“After monitoring the situation, we contacted all involved agencies including police, Fire and Rescue Department, district office, Department of Irrigation and Drainage (DID), and the Seberang Prai city council (MBSP) among others,” added Gooi.

He said that a decision was then made to set up two temporary relief centres at SJKC True Light and at Bukit Teh.

“A total of 86 victims from 26 families were housed here overnight,” he said.

Gooi added that the water level at Taman Mangga was high and around 100 houses were flooded.

“The water level has slowly receded and some of them have gone home to clean up. The DID and MBSP are investigating the cause of such a big flood,” he said.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said the state government has always stressed on flood mitigation projects to reduce the impact of floods.

“In fact, the Parit 5 flood mitigation project here was done when I was the exco to solve flood problems at Taman Mangga and Juru new village area. Since Parit 5 was completed in 2018, we have been able to control the situation but this time, it was beyond capacity,” he said.

“We will take note of the people’s pleas and look into better solutions,” added Chow.

Chow said the state government is always monitoring flood-prone areas and has been actively carrying out flood mitigation projects.

“We spent RM300mil in the past 10 years for flood mitigation projects. However, if it is beyond its capacity, flooding will still happen,” he said.

DID assistant engineer Rozali Saad flood said they started monitoring the situation when the rain started until early morning on Saturday (Nov 12).

“We will carry out an investigation and identify the exact cause. For a short-term solution, we will build a dam to prevent water entering the housing area.

“After we manage to control water flow, we can build a floodgate to control water entering the drain,” he said.