Flash floods submerged Jalan Thean Teik in Farlim in front of All Seasons after a heavy downpour this evening. The areas around the state mosque, the Turf Club area and Jalan P Ramlee were also affected.
Welcome to the new ‘Thean Teik River’.
And this is the area behind the Melody Home Condominium in Thean Teik:
Even hill-slopes saw unexpected waterfalls spilling muddy water down neighbourhood roads and houses.
One of the worst affected areas was not far from massive hill clearing in Paya Terubong highlighted by Penang Forum and hill scarring in the same area reported in this blog just over three months ago.
This formula spells trouble:
Botak Hills + Heavy Rain = Flash Floods
Or instead of Botak Hills, substitute with High Density Development and Concretisation plus Inadequate Drainage.
These flash floods come just two days before Penang Forum is due to launch its Penang Hills Watch online crowd-sourcing and mapping initiative.
And this was the area near the state mosque:
Please report floods in other parts of Penang in the comments below.
So do we still want to clear more hills and see what happens?
| Please help to support this blog if you can. Read the commenting guidlelines for this blog. |
It gets flooded , no point arguing.
Hope that their home insurance inclusive of flood damage.
Maybe the next logical solution would be living in a small or medium house that is able to float.
Whenever the place gets flooded , the entire house floats.
Safely anchored to the ground of course.
This is not a new engineering feat as people do lives on floating houses.
New ones come complete with solar power and/or wind energy (rooftop wind turbine)
Any local engineers and architect want to give it a try ?
being telling tun lang to live in tree tops and turn penang top tree city. what a novity. then we see more innocent kids in penang as they are entice by one in life time top tree living. beat around the guest house tax to pay. trees are more green. many trees tun lang will say there will be no flood as the runoff is retained
Rainfall unusually higher than what the drains are designed to cope.
Furious faces after muddy ordeal
http://www.thestar.com.my/metro/community/2016/10/31/furious-faces-after-muddy-ordeal-residents-dismayed-over-belongings-destroyed-in-saturdays-flash-flo/
EXCERPTS:
HUNDREDS of residents expressed fury in the aftermath of the flash floods that saw water rising as high as 1m in several parts of Penang.
Among the worst hit were Lebuhraya Thean Teik and Jalan Thean Teik in Bandar Baru Air Itam, and Jalan P. Ramlee where water rose to waist-level.
Many of them were busy cleaning their houses filled with mud and silt. Furniture and belongings that were destroyed by the muddy inundation were thrown away.
A three-hour downpour from 4.30pm on Saturday saw many parts of Penang under water.
Rainfall nightmare for car owners
http://www.thestar.com.my/metro/views/2016/11/01/rainfall-nightmare-for-car-owners-flooding-drives-motorists-up-the-wall-as-many-end-up-incurring-hig/
Experts blame over-development for Penang flooding http://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2016/10/31/expert-blame-over-development-for-penang-flooding/ GEORGE TOWN: Environmental activists are worried Penang is being over-developed while the state government is upset with the Federal Government for delaying the disbursement of RM350mil for flood mitigation. “Sea water did not rush upriver to stall the rain runoffs that submerged large tracts of George Town,” said Malaysia Nature Society Penang branch advisor D. Kanda Kumar. Kanda also called on the state not to blame the tides or global warming on the Federal Government, as it was low tide when the four rivers here broke their banks on Saturday. “It’s development. By… Read more »
‘After RM94m spent, why is Penang still flooding?’
https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/361106
Q: Will another RM350mil of flood solution (if approved by Feds) solve flooding in Penang?
God be prepared (should the Feds washes its hands) – to be blamed by cats as Nature continues to rain more cats minus the dogs.
stupid comments. the real experts are hydrologists, hydrogeologists and drainage engineers. even half past six can give such standard comments. jps or did has the urban drainage manual for new developments like sedimentation pond. engineers do not comment much.
another stupid comment. even a sponge has its limits to absorb water what so the grd conditions. now it rains gor 3 hours. does it mean the grd can absorb all water if the next rain for 3.5 hours? or 12 hours?
You are getting more stupid by the day!!!
The weather pattern is getting stranger in many parts of the world.
Time to watch The Inconvenience Truth DVD by Al a Gore again the appreciate the possible causes.
Certainly need better drainage eg. Bigger and Deeper longkang.
deeper longkang no help. the high tides comes in. gilakan federal with liang must give money to build barrage to stop tide and widen the drainage
Flood prone area will score negatively by home buyers, and today’s a lesson to those seeking (many but bank loans almost impossible these days) home info at The Star organised fair at QBay Mall, many of whom went for lucky draw spins ad prime motivation knowing well majority can’t afford the purchase. However, The Star appears to report the response favourably ( actual booking figures not revealed), and encourage those from SP to migrate back to island,as must have read Anilnetto.com that the trend is actually from Penang Island to SP instead, http://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2016/10/28/people-upgrading-properties-queensbay/ Shame on you the Star for countering… Read more »
Me one of the victim.
Did you get any form of compensation?
Do you think this is Kelantan?
Very sorry, Lily.
Was it a first in your area?
Never sembilan is asking for rain as it is facing water shortage….
Also weeks ago jln data in KL up to uni Malaya flood.
If umno DBKL with billions budget as cash is king cannot control flood how can peanuts mppp
Imagine such flooding occuring during GE14 day, then many likely to show frustrations by voting against the establishment for incuring the wrath of the almighty for ignoring the nature with too much concretes for the houses and cars ?
The flood water looked murky. Did it not come from cleared slopes?
The political masters must have the WILL to resolve the problem.
Just like IWK imposing 1% contribution of sales value upon developer for new housing project.
If Penang Developers are required to contribute 2 % for drainage, then problem can be solved easily.
Jps has implement the detention pond system since gilakan umno pg Gomen. This is a requirement that postdevelopment discharge should be same as per development. but if karma wants to pour more rain at that spot can you say like like tsunami hits acheh?
Why not see it as a test from God the Almighty?
Already got a Niao Kong to worship day & night, is there any need to believe in God?
One of the solutions is to require developers to build rain water retention ponds.
One example is behind Kuta Bali Restaurant in Paya Terubong.
But developers will most likely grumble it’s a waste of space (for more maxi-profiteering).
The high tide at 5.41pm is not the sole cause of inland flooding some 15km (Farlim) from the shoreline.
The massive rainwater run-off which could not be ‘sponged in time’ by the botak-ed hills of Paya Terubong, not even the 2 retention ponds just some kilometres away speaks volume of Karmic ills of uncontrolled + frenzied development in Air Itam, Farlim & Paya Terubong.
It rained cats &dogs, but I would rather blame the CATs for indifference & Absolute Vodka Arrogance in this state of rain + flood.
High tide is not the sole cause.
Chow Chow, where RU?
Ask a hydrologist. What is the percentage of rain being absorbed by ground and vegetation? The intensity of the rain depends on the eye of the storm. Why new Orleans does not hit by kartina like hurricane ever year or Kelantan does not get receive intense storm very year that destory houses that PR has to send volunteers to rebuild? Retention system is required by JPS in every new development. So are what happened??
Blame the botak hills is like attributing the rich living on hill top causing misery to the poor living on low lying area?
Culprits are not only recalcitrant developers but also greedy farmers illegally clearing hill forest.
Where’s the enforcement?
Where’s the Penang Local Plan to curb CAT Penchant For Land Use Conversion & strict 250 feet limit?
Don’t expect Chow Chow to always come forward to give PR exercise statements (on behalf of Penang State Planning Committee?) at every environmental disaster when the ‘Kepala’ should have the decency of courage to face public wrath.
stupid comment. it is a by law requirement years ago by jps where the post development should be less or equal to predevelopment discharge. jps has written design manuals and has updates few years ago. this may include design rainfall intensities and frequencies. that is the way to answer and not just say stupid.
Stupid!
stupid new malsysian dams are designed to earthquake requirements.
why silent in the illegal clearing and farming on the hillslopes? easy to point up at mt komtar. why not point higher at karma if he wants to pour more rain at far lim because of kopi o kau kau and no rain in negeri sembilan and injin rain dance is required.
Stupid comment!
yes i am stupid. you are even worse if you cant refute me and just give personality comments. let the readers judge who is the real dude if you can refute my comments.