Post-Flood 2010 - Reflections

It took 10 days for the floods to finally started receding. I could just watch the waters ebbed slowly and told it "dari Allah datangnya kamu, kepada Allah kembalinya kamu bila tiba masanya". It was depressing. We came back to the house when the waters started receding. I'd preferred to be at my house even though there was still water surrounding us.

The best part of the floods was the bond between the neighbours. We kept a look out for each other. We gathered at one of the higher level houses to discuss the cleaning up, the aids coming and due to us, the sick, the mess, the loss of property and whoever was coming to give aid. Since we hardly stayed around much, the others made sure to pass the forms to us and insisted that we also filled in. At first I refused telling Noor that we did not need the aid. Besides, there were others much badly affected than us. Yet, they said "all for one and one for all." It was a collective effort. So, we became officially, a statistic as a flood victim. :-{

The saddest part was the loss of the 2 boys aged 9 and 11 years old to the flood. The back part of this housing area (it comprised 4 housing estates) was the IWK complex. The road was tarred and actually, our residents' morning walk area. It was next to the padi fields and the canals leading to the river. Thus, during the floods, the children liked to gather here and played in the waters. Noor wandered until this area to see the rapid flowing waters. I avoided the waters and getting my feet wet ..:-} So, most of the time I would wait at the high level areas until he had completed the rounds. What I heard was the 4 boys were as usual there playing and accidentally, one of them fell into the waters. The second boy jumped in and tried to help him. This resulted in the third boy jumping in trying to pull out the second one. The fourth boy finally jumped in and managed to pull out the third one. The fast rapid waters sucked them in and all they could do was to get help. We went to see the parents. Our neighbourhood residents held vigil every night for a week. The Chief of Police, Dato' Hishamuddin, Dato' Shahrizat Jalil and a few other ministers came. One of the boy's father was a policeman. The police force sent their frogmen and after 5 days, they managed to locate one body 5km away. It was so bloated that they had to conduct a DNA to determine which were the parents. The other parents were devastated. While we were busy cleaning up our houses, the mother of the unfound boy was there for almost 2 weeks before she gave up and let go. It was very sad for all of us as we all had children and it could happen to any of us. My heart went to her and all I could do was offered prayers that Allah gave her strength and the patience to face this major test in her life. I could not imagine if it was one of my boys. ;-(

The padi fields were covered with the flood.

A day before, one could still see the "batas" sawah.

The fast flowing rapids...leading straight to the river.

The area where the boys fell and drowned - the body was found 5km away.

 What was significant about the post-flood was the help that came from unexpected quarters. The Tzu Chi Foundation came while I was busy washing the crockery that was submerged in the flood. They were represented by senior citizens - 4 of them. Very soft-spoken and gentle mannered. I was the first house they came to being at the end lot where one could park their cars. They told me that they were a voluntary non-profit body although most of them were Buddhists. Their work encompassed all over the world. They wanted to give cash aid. I thanked them politely but I refused the aid justifying that others were more deserving. They did not accept my refusal and instead clarified that my housing area was one the most badly affected in Alor Setar. Thus, I deserved the aid. Noor refused to come out to entertain them. Hence, we sat for a while and since they could speak English, made our communication easier. They gave me RM200 and a bagful of toiletries goodies. I was very touched and humbled. These were not muslims.
So, what did I do with the money? I told Noor to take me to this old couple (they were in their mid and late 70's) and handed over half the money to them as they needed it more than us. The other half I used it for our food money. I was grateful Noor never questioned any of my actions for charity work. :-) (Though I think he just could not understand the whys and so just let me be me  :-} )

The next group to come to our aid was the Anglican Church from Kuala Lumpur. Our house became the store to keep their aid of foodstuff before distribution. They came in a bus load to distribute rice, cooking oil, sugar....a RM200 worth of household needs. I tried to refuse again. They had a name list and so I graciously took it with every intention of giving them to the more needy.  I used my car to help them to send the things to other residents' houses and joined in their distribution. It was the least I could do. Then, while they waited for their bus to return to KL, I became the humble host. I put out some mats for them to sit on the porch, served whatever drinks I had, let them had a free use of the toilets and enjoyed talking to them in English, of course. MasyaAllah. SubhanAllah. Alhamdulillah.

The politicians came with some volunteer squad from universities and colleges but it was much later when we had already did the hard work of cleaning up our houses. We were lucky because we did not lose out much on property. Noor liked to buy either solid wood or marble or iron...so, we only lost a mattress which was soaked by the flood, some pillows, clothes that could not really be salvaged, books and mostly unused items in the store room. Our neighbours were much worse off.

It took us almost 2 weeks to finally settled everything. Between the two of us, we managed little by little every day. It was exhausting and we were flat out every night. Allah permudahkan segala-galanya. Dia menduga sikit sahaja. Dia beri banjir hampir dengan cuti sekolah. Saya dapat cuti banjir bermakna 2 minggu akhir saya tidak perlu ke sekolah. Dia beri bantuan daripada sumber yang tidak disangka. Dia beri kesabaran dan kekuatan. Pada hari kami sedang mengemas rumah dan tak larat nak pergi cari makan, datang Omayah dan Sofiah hantar lunch. Malam Omayah hantar dinner. MasyaAllah. Hanya lafaz Alhamdulillah. Dalam kami kepenatan dan rasanya seperti tak boleh bangun keesokannya (terasa dah semakin berusia :-0 ) datang Fariza dan Ein (anak jiran) untuk membantu cuci porch and kemas store. Maka nikmat Allah manakah yang kamu dustakan? Terlalu sedikit dugaan, terlalu banyak dipermudahkan. Malulah kita jika kita tidak menjadi hamba yang bersyukur.

Last year, we were more prepared. The state was more prepared and cleared out the clogged drains and rivers. They said it would be a five to seven year cycle for the big flood. The last time was when we were in Mecca in 2005. Our area was spared. I hope we would be spared for the rest of our lives because honestly I could not take the cleaning up after the floods. InsyaAllah. Aamiiin.