Even the rooftop wasn’t safe enough, says Pahang flood victim

A father and son who had waited for rescue on the roof of their house in Kampung Batu Sawar in Kuantan eventually had to improvise after being caught in floods yesterday.

Sahadan Ibrahim, 54, said he and his son, Fikri, 21, decided to climb onto the roof of their house when the flood waters which started rising at 11pm on Saturday rose sharply at 2pm.

“The water level was inching closer to us, giving us second thoughts about whether to stay on the roof… after discussing, we decided to swim towards a two-storey house located about 50m away.

“Thankfully, we were safe despite the strong currents and were able to survive on the roof of the other house, until a villager rescued us with his fibre-glass boat,” he told Bernama when met at the Sungai Riau Bridge in Bukit Kuin.

Sahadan, who is a welder, said they initially intended to wait it out on the roof of their home because they thought this year’s floods were not too bad. He added however that they had guessed wrong.

The flood, according to Sahadan, was the worst he had experienced since settling in Bukit Kuin five years ago.

“The water rose quickly and even though we moved important items to a high place, in the end everything could not be saved because we did not have time to get them (while climbing to the roof) since the most important thing on our minds at that time was to save ourselves,” he said.

Meanwhile, Sahadan’s son-in-law Sulaiman Roslan, 25, said he rushed to look for his father-in-law after receiving a call informing him that they were climbing to the roof to save themselves.

Sulaiman said when he arrived at Bukit Kuin, he was at a loss over how to reach the village since the entrance was flooded, but some villagers provided boat rental services for those who wanted to go to the other side.

“While thinking about what to do, I saw a boat with my father-in-law and brother-in-law approaching where we had gathered. Alhamdulillah, everything was safe even though they only had the shirts on their backs,” he said.