Background
On 5 November 2017, heavy rain in Penang island and mainland caused sudden flooding in several areas. Local news reported that flood water levels at Jalan P. Ramlee and Jalan Terengganu water level reached waist level at about 6pm. CREST and HISTeam immediately deployed personnel to do rapid assessment.
2 rescue boats from Port Dickson and 2 container-load of food and water were arranged by CREST and a private company to meet the immediate needs requested by the local government.
Objective 1. To set up an operations base cooperation with Methodist crisis relief development at Jelutong Chinese Methodist Church (Jelutong CMC). 2. To assess affected areas around Jalan P. Ramlee, Jalan Zoo, Jalan Lim Lean Teng and Jalan Lumba Kuda.
Activity
1. Cleaning and garbage collection services were deployed from local church Jelutong CMC to assist the residents at Jalan Zoo 1 to 5. Approximately 80 units of landed property (50% is single story) and 4 houses at Off Jalan Zoo (Malay village)were badly affected. CREST has agreed to kick start the operation with an initial sum of RM5,000.
Garbage along the road
Garbage within their house compound
Garbage inside their house
2. From 6 to 9 Nov, 173 volunteers were mobilized under CREST and MCRD were deployed to do cleaning and garbage disposal. They came from the Bible college, local churches and churches from Kuala Lumpur, Perak, and Selangor. Exactly 100 tons of garbage was disposed and houses were cleaned from Jalan Zoo 2 to 5. (Jalan Zoo 1 received help from the local municipal from 9 Nov onwards).
3. On 10 and 11 Nov, we walked the extra mile by sending volunteers to Bukit Mertajam. The operations base was set up at T-junction in between Tingkat Binjai 8, & Tingkat Binjai 10, Taman Sri Rambai to provide cleaning and garbage disposal services.
Before @ Tingkat Binjai 10
After @ Tingkat Binjai 10
4. 91 volunteers were deployed over the weekend to do cleaning and 95 tons of garbage was disposed.
5. The cleaning and garbage disposal operations ended officially at 6pm, 11 November 2017. We have transitioned into Recovery and Mitigation phase.
Challenges
1. Shortage of garbage truck service provider, each trip coats RM100.
2. Majority of the volunteers are first timers and lack experience.
3. CREST spent a few thousand ringgit recently for the maintenance and servicing of 9 water-jets (3 run on electricity and 6 on petrol). Despite that, 2 broke down during the cleaning and were not serviceable.
Recommendations
1. To distribute vouchers to affected households to buy either furniture or electrical appliances from Lorong Zoo 1 – 5 (See Map). Each household will received RM 300 (estimated 200 households).
2. To provide small cash aid for car or motorcycle repairs, not exceeding RM300 each.
3. To provide cash aid for house repairs (such as electrical wiring) not exceeding RM300 each.
4. To provide cash aid for small businesses such as hawkers who lost their equipment for income generation, not exceeding RM500 each.
5. To conduct training on disaster relief, community preparedness and disaster response to local volunteers and churches.
All these relief aids will be determined by local church committees and CREST. Estimated amount required is RM 80,000.
In Him, we serve, CK Cheong Executive Director
