Floods In Johor Worsen, Five Relief Centres Reopen
Although the worst appears to be over, floods in Johor Worsen, five relief centres reopen, according to Bernama (26th Dec.)
The death toll from floods has risen to eight with the death of an Indonesian worker, while the search for a missing youth continues, police said on Tuesday.
Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) had to shut down electricity in Kota Tinggi District as flood waters rose from 0.3m to 0.6m Tuesday night.
A spokesman from the Johor Police Flood Relief Centre said relief centres were reopened at Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina Pu Sze, Sengkang Hall, Kampung Lorong Arif Jamek Mosque, Sekolah Agama Cahaya Masai and Kampung Bukit Pulai Hall.
He said Kampung Laut, Batu 10 Skudai in Johor Baharu was inundated again with floodwater rising to chest level causing 700 residents to be evacuated to Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina Pu Sze and another 200 to Kampung Lorong Arif Jamek Mosque, Skudai.
The total number of people evacuated in Johor as at 8 pm Tuesday night was 56,877, of which 1,208 were in Johor Baharu, Batu Pahat (24,315), Muar (20,344), Kota Tinggi (5,756), Segamat (3,813), Pontian (381), Mersing (694) and Kluang (366), he said.
The spokesman said that Jalan Kota Tinggi-Mersing at Km12 to Mawai was open to heavy vehicles while light vehicles could use Jalan Kota Tinggi-Desaru to go to Mersing via Felda Sungai Mas.
In Segamat, Jalan Batu 7 Segamat-Tangkak and Jalan Segamat-Gemas is closed to traffic while the stretches of roads closed in Muar are Km3 and Km7 Jalan Pagoh-Lenga, Jalan Bukit Kepong-Labis, Jalan Pagoh-Panchor, Batu 5 Jalan Sungai Mati-Muar and Jalan Muar-Tangkak at Pekan Layang.
In Batu Pahat several roads in Seri Medan were inaccessible namely Jalan Sungai Parit Sikun, Parit Terus and Jalan Seri Pasir. Jalan Muar-Yong Peng-Parit Sulong is impassable to traffic as it is under 0.5m of water.
Jalan Tongkang Pecah-Parit Jalil, Batu 5 Yong Peng-Parit Sulong and Jalan Parit Karjo-Senggarang are impassable to traffic while Parit Sulong is cut off from other areas as flood waters rose to 0.3m, said the spokesman.
Numerous victims are still being housed at the various relief centers around the Southern states. Basic utilities, like electricity and water, will take time to restore, leaving the victims in much difficulty in the coming weeks, or even months.
And your help is still needed, particularly in providing food and essential items to the flood victims. The following is a brief compilation of parties you can help out with this effort.
Please contact :
Mercy Malaysia +60 3 4256-9999
Malaysian Red Crescent Society +60 3 4257-8726
The earthquake that generated the great Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 is estimated to have released the energy of 23,000 Hiroshima-type atomic bombs, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
Giant forces that had been building up deep in the Earth for hundreds of years were released suddenly on December 26, shaking the ground violently and unleashing a series of killer waves that sped across the Indian Ocean at the speed of a jet airliner.
By the end of the day more than 150,000 people were dead or missing and millions more were homeless in 11 countries, making it perhaps the most destructive tsunami in history.
The epicenter of the 9.0 magnitude quake was under the Indian Ocean near the west coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, according to the USGS, which monitors earthquakes worldwide. The violent movement of sections of the Earth's crust, known as tectonic plates, displaced an enormous amount of water, sending powerful shock waves in every direction.
The earthquake was the result of the sliding of the portion of the Earth's crust known as the India plate under the section called the Burma plate. The process has been going on for millennia, one plate pushing against the other until something has to give. The result on December 26 was a rupture the USGS estimates was more than 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) long, displacing the seafloor above the rupture by perhaps 10 yards (about 10 meters) horizontally and several yards vertically. That doesn't sound like much, but the trillions of tons of rock that were moved along hundreds of miles caused the planet to shudder with the largest magnitude earthquake in 40 years.
The enormous force and weight of so much water sweeps away almost everything in its path. As many as a third of the people who died in the Indian Ocean tsunami were children; many of them would not have been strong enough to resist the force of the water. Many people were crushed by debris or when the sea hurled them against structures.
Witnesses said the approaching tsunami sounded like three freight trains or the roar of a jet. In some places the tsunami advanced as a torrent of foaming water.
In several places the tsunami announced itself in the form of a rapidly receding ocean. Many reports quoted survivors saying how they had never seen the sea withdraw such a distance, exposing seafloor never seen before, stranding fish and boats on the sand. Tragically the novelty of the sight apparently stoked the curiosity of the people who ran out onto the exposed seafloor. Tourists in Thailand were seen wandering around photographing the scene.
With prayers and flowers and tears, from Thailand's beaches to the islands of India, mourners paid tribute to their loved ones on the second anniversary of the Asian tsunami.
Emotional ceremonies across the region Tuesday recalled the day when giant waves killed 220,000 people in a sweep of devastation that washed entire villages away -- and left many that survived struggling to recover.
Some threw flowers out to sea as dawn broke, tears welling in their eyes.
Others stood in silent remembrance of the 5,400 killed in the village, more than half of whom were tourists.
Similar scenes were replayed around Asia, as people still grappled with the tragedy and destruction two years after one of the worst natural disasters ever recorded.
With no comprehensive early-warning system in place, the waves -- rising up after a massive 9.3-magnitude undersea earthquake -- wreaked havoc in a matter of moments, to rip through schools, hospitals and hotels.
In Indonesia's Aceh province, which suffered 168,000 dead, residents gathered in mosques for small private ceremonies.
Aceh's commemorations were made even more sombre by fresh catastrophe -- the floods and landslides in recent days that have killed around 110 people and forced tens of thousands to flee.
On the Indonesian island of Bali, which escaped the 2004 catastrophe, some 15,000 schoolchildren and residents took part in a tsunami evacuation drill.
A BBC report last week, citing UN figures, said several major donors had given little or none of the money that had been pledged -- around 6.7 billion dollars in all.
The report said China had only delivered one million of the 301 million dollars it pledged to Sri Lanka, although the Chinese foreign ministry insisted Tuesday it had now made all its tsunami donations.
Some places like Ban Nam Khem and the popular resort areas of Phuket in tourist-friendly Thailand have been rebuilt relatively quickly -- but the reconstruction has not reached everyone.
When the history of the deadly 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami comes to be written, will the role of the media be praised, criticised or just seen as inadequate? 'We didn't do a good job in warning people. But once the disaster hit, we did a good job in (spreading the word),' said Colombo-based TV journalist Nalaka Gunawardene.
Meeting in the Thai capital one of the east and south Asian countries badly hit by the tsunami, journalists from the region took stock over the way the fourth estate responded to that tragic event. They pondered over how timely communication could save lives or mitigate the impact of disasters, whether the media needs to balance the public's right to know with the right to dignity and privacy, limits and limitations of the media in disasters and whether too much is expected of the media when other social institutions are non-existent, collapsing or corrupted.
Some $13 billion was pledged by way of aid - not all materialised - to cope with the tsunami aftermath, making it the single largest donation response to a global calamity. 'The world would have not responded the way it did without the media,' argued Gunawardene.
Many have pointed out that information is a vital form of aid in itself, but this is not sufficiently recognised by humanitarian organisations.
Malaysia-based Chin Saik Yoon, communications specialist and publisher of the alternative Southbound Press, recalled how his attempts to trace a Singapore-based non-resident Indian from Tamil Nadu, who saved a village with a phone call, had rebounded.
'Later I learnt that the man came to become one of the most hated in the village. Reports that no life had been lost there (because of the timely phone call) was misread to mean there was no damage but the village had been destroyed. The villagers were angry when they were bypassed for aid,' Chin said.
For the media, a disaster which did not happen is not a story. For media any story needs to carry a shock value; if it bleeds, it leads. The 'tsunamisation' of disasters have desensitised us.
Disasters have different categories. There are creeping disasters like drought. If 500 people die in a train mishap, it's a big story. But if that many die by drinking (water contaminated with) pesticides, that's not a story.
Journalists also pointed to the challenge of 'bringing out the human face of a large-scale disaster'.
Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, India and the Maldives were among the countries worst hit by the 2004 tsunami, the second anniversary of which is being observed Tuesday.
Malaysia flood help Asian tsunam anniversary
The death toll from floods has risen to eight with the death of an Indonesian worker, while the search for a missing youth continues, police said on Tuesday.
Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) had to shut down electricity in Kota Tinggi District as flood waters rose from 0.3m to 0.6m Tuesday night.
A spokesman from the Johor Police Flood Relief Centre said relief centres were reopened at Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina Pu Sze, Sengkang Hall, Kampung Lorong Arif Jamek Mosque, Sekolah Agama Cahaya Masai and Kampung Bukit Pulai Hall.
He said Kampung Laut, Batu 10 Skudai in Johor Baharu was inundated again with floodwater rising to chest level causing 700 residents to be evacuated to Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina Pu Sze and another 200 to Kampung Lorong Arif Jamek Mosque, Skudai.
The total number of people evacuated in Johor as at 8 pm Tuesday night was 56,877, of which 1,208 were in Johor Baharu, Batu Pahat (24,315), Muar (20,344), Kota Tinggi (5,756), Segamat (3,813), Pontian (381), Mersing (694) and Kluang (366), he said.
The spokesman said that Jalan Kota Tinggi-Mersing at Km12 to Mawai was open to heavy vehicles while light vehicles could use Jalan Kota Tinggi-Desaru to go to Mersing via Felda Sungai Mas.
In Segamat, Jalan Batu 7 Segamat-Tangkak and Jalan Segamat-Gemas is closed to traffic while the stretches of roads closed in Muar are Km3 and Km7 Jalan Pagoh-Lenga, Jalan Bukit Kepong-Labis, Jalan Pagoh-Panchor, Batu 5 Jalan Sungai Mati-Muar and Jalan Muar-Tangkak at Pekan Layang.
In Batu Pahat several roads in Seri Medan were inaccessible namely Jalan Sungai Parit Sikun, Parit Terus and Jalan Seri Pasir. Jalan Muar-Yong Peng-Parit Sulong is impassable to traffic as it is under 0.5m of water.
Jalan Tongkang Pecah-Parit Jalil, Batu 5 Yong Peng-Parit Sulong and Jalan Parit Karjo-Senggarang are impassable to traffic while Parit Sulong is cut off from other areas as flood waters rose to 0.3m, said the spokesman.
Numerous victims are still being housed at the various relief centers around the Southern states. Basic utilities, like electricity and water, will take time to restore, leaving the victims in much difficulty in the coming weeks, or even months.
And your help is still needed, particularly in providing food and essential items to the flood victims. The following is a brief compilation of parties you can help out with this effort.
Please contact :
Mercy Malaysia +60 3 4256-9999
Malaysian Red Crescent Society +60 3 4257-8726
**********
There have been more floods in Johor and people there are still miserable and need help. The Red Crescent is doing the best they can but they need more, and urgent, help. Raja Zarith Sofia, Chair of Community Services for the Malaysian Red Crescent Society is appealing for money so they can buy stuff. Please send cheques to Persatuan Bulan Sabit Merah Malaysia (PBSMM), Cabang Johor Bahru, Public Bank a/c no 3110939317.
(From Marina M )
Prayers, tears mark tsunami anniversary
The earthquake that generated the great Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 is estimated to have released the energy of 23,000 Hiroshima-type atomic bombs, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
Giant forces that had been building up deep in the Earth for hundreds of years were released suddenly on December 26, shaking the ground violently and unleashing a series of killer waves that sped across the Indian Ocean at the speed of a jet airliner.
By the end of the day more than 150,000 people were dead or missing and millions more were homeless in 11 countries, making it perhaps the most destructive tsunami in history.
The epicenter of the 9.0 magnitude quake was under the Indian Ocean near the west coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, according to the USGS, which monitors earthquakes worldwide. The violent movement of sections of the Earth's crust, known as tectonic plates, displaced an enormous amount of water, sending powerful shock waves in every direction.
The earthquake was the result of the sliding of the portion of the Earth's crust known as the India plate under the section called the Burma plate. The process has been going on for millennia, one plate pushing against the other until something has to give. The result on December 26 was a rupture the USGS estimates was more than 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) long, displacing the seafloor above the rupture by perhaps 10 yards (about 10 meters) horizontally and several yards vertically. That doesn't sound like much, but the trillions of tons of rock that were moved along hundreds of miles caused the planet to shudder with the largest magnitude earthquake in 40 years.
The enormous force and weight of so much water sweeps away almost everything in its path. As many as a third of the people who died in the Indian Ocean tsunami were children; many of them would not have been strong enough to resist the force of the water. Many people were crushed by debris or when the sea hurled them against structures.
Witnesses said the approaching tsunami sounded like three freight trains or the roar of a jet. In some places the tsunami advanced as a torrent of foaming water.
In several places the tsunami announced itself in the form of a rapidly receding ocean. Many reports quoted survivors saying how they had never seen the sea withdraw such a distance, exposing seafloor never seen before, stranding fish and boats on the sand. Tragically the novelty of the sight apparently stoked the curiosity of the people who ran out onto the exposed seafloor. Tourists in Thailand were seen wandering around photographing the scene.
With prayers and flowers and tears, from Thailand's beaches to the islands of India, mourners paid tribute to their loved ones on the second anniversary of the Asian tsunami.
Emotional ceremonies across the region Tuesday recalled the day when giant waves killed 220,000 people in a sweep of devastation that washed entire villages away -- and left many that survived struggling to recover.
Some threw flowers out to sea as dawn broke, tears welling in their eyes.
Others stood in silent remembrance of the 5,400 killed in the village, more than half of whom were tourists.
Similar scenes were replayed around Asia, as people still grappled with the tragedy and destruction two years after one of the worst natural disasters ever recorded.
With no comprehensive early-warning system in place, the waves -- rising up after a massive 9.3-magnitude undersea earthquake -- wreaked havoc in a matter of moments, to rip through schools, hospitals and hotels.
In Indonesia's Aceh province, which suffered 168,000 dead, residents gathered in mosques for small private ceremonies.
Aceh's commemorations were made even more sombre by fresh catastrophe -- the floods and landslides in recent days that have killed around 110 people and forced tens of thousands to flee.
On the Indonesian island of Bali, which escaped the 2004 catastrophe, some 15,000 schoolchildren and residents took part in a tsunami evacuation drill.
A BBC report last week, citing UN figures, said several major donors had given little or none of the money that had been pledged -- around 6.7 billion dollars in all.
The report said China had only delivered one million of the 301 million dollars it pledged to Sri Lanka, although the Chinese foreign ministry insisted Tuesday it had now made all its tsunami donations.
Some places like Ban Nam Khem and the popular resort areas of Phuket in tourist-friendly Thailand have been rebuilt relatively quickly -- but the reconstruction has not reached everyone.
When the history of the deadly 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami comes to be written, will the role of the media be praised, criticised or just seen as inadequate? 'We didn't do a good job in warning people. But once the disaster hit, we did a good job in (spreading the word),' said Colombo-based TV journalist Nalaka Gunawardene.
Meeting in the Thai capital one of the east and south Asian countries badly hit by the tsunami, journalists from the region took stock over the way the fourth estate responded to that tragic event. They pondered over how timely communication could save lives or mitigate the impact of disasters, whether the media needs to balance the public's right to know with the right to dignity and privacy, limits and limitations of the media in disasters and whether too much is expected of the media when other social institutions are non-existent, collapsing or corrupted.
Some $13 billion was pledged by way of aid - not all materialised - to cope with the tsunami aftermath, making it the single largest donation response to a global calamity. 'The world would have not responded the way it did without the media,' argued Gunawardene.
Many have pointed out that information is a vital form of aid in itself, but this is not sufficiently recognised by humanitarian organisations.
Malaysia-based Chin Saik Yoon, communications specialist and publisher of the alternative Southbound Press, recalled how his attempts to trace a Singapore-based non-resident Indian from Tamil Nadu, who saved a village with a phone call, had rebounded.
'Later I learnt that the man came to become one of the most hated in the village. Reports that no life had been lost there (because of the timely phone call) was misread to mean there was no damage but the village had been destroyed. The villagers were angry when they were bypassed for aid,' Chin said.
For the media, a disaster which did not happen is not a story. For media any story needs to carry a shock value; if it bleeds, it leads. The 'tsunamisation' of disasters have desensitised us.
Disasters have different categories. There are creeping disasters like drought. If 500 people die in a train mishap, it's a big story. But if that many die by drinking (water contaminated with) pesticides, that's not a story.
Journalists also pointed to the challenge of 'bringing out the human face of a large-scale disaster'.
Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, India and the Maldives were among the countries worst hit by the 2004 tsunami, the second anniversary of which is being observed Tuesday.
Malaysia flood help Asian tsunam anniversary
Labels: Politic - Local and Asean
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