Howling winds, floods haunt Penangites as rain lashes through the night

Barely a week after Penang Forum 8’s Dialogue on Floods, prolonged heavy rain is lashing the state, inundating several streets.

The freakish winds are so strong that one resident in a high-rise tower said her apartment was swamped with sheets of water penetrating through the windows. “I have removed half a dozen pails of water so far.” Hard to imagine.

Blog visitor Ain writes:

1.40am….. I can’t sleep, friends on whatsapp telling their houses flooded, roof wind angkat, they can’t sleep fear water may rise, fear strong wind….

I’m not going to be heran anymore, if the whole island is gonna be flooded pretty soon, and that’s gonna be the new norm – water elevation.

I’m not going to be heran if hail drops followed by tornadoes here.

Places never flooded before are now flooding.
Places that have stopped flooding are now flooding.
Climate change. Bukit botak. Low pressure. What else? Island tilting/sinking?

Change diet also can’t help, more terok, when someone loves Botaking the hills non stop.

We Penangites need to address this seriously.

Areas affected by floods are P Ramlee Road, Kimberly Street, Mcnair Street, Pesara King Edward, Carnavon Street, Melayu Street, Petani Road, Paya Terubong… heck, you add to the list.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7Jpo6_0uxg

Blog visitor tunglang reports:

Taman Lumba Kuda also flooded. Passed by the Jalan Air Itam/Taman Lumba Kuda junction at 5.10pm, saw Rela guys blocking entry, many cars parking along the service road in front of Petron Station. A bit further down, the Sungai Air Hitam river water was almost breaking its river bank; the same opposite at Masjid Negeri. Less than 10 feet before flooding the main road.

Seeing the angry river flowing with such might and torrent, I would never want to jump in for a swim. Sungai Air Hitam should be renamed as Sungai Milo Susu Kau Kau!

Went to Trengganu Road (section from smallest roundabout till Jalan Air Itam), but saw no flood!

A video circulating around shows flooded streets around the heavily built up Spice Convention Centre.

On the mainland, parts of Prai, Bukit Tengah, are Raja Uda are among the areas swamped. One resident of Chai Leng Park reports that the water level at the back of his house is rising. “The wind is howling, and the streets are covered with water.”

So how many months of rainfall is it in a single day? Can anyone – apart from Trump – doubt that climate change is upon us?

The federal government should give Penang whatever is due for flood mitigation. It would be scandalous to withhold any funds.

But flood mitigation projects are just remedial measures and can only go so far.

Over-development (unsustainable development) and hill-slope degradation only makes things worse. Can you imagine – the state government has increased the maximum density allowed more than four-fold in the last decade – from 30 homes per acre to 128 homes per care last year (180 homes per acre for low-cost homes). This blog tried hard over the last decade to warn that we should go easy with rampant property development and hill-clearing.  Penang Forum tried too. To no avail.

What happened to our Penang Island Local Plan, which was approved by the full council of the MPPP in early 2008 under the previous BN administration and then approved later that year (with minimal changes) by the MPPP under the new Pakatan administration? Why was it never put up on public display for feedback and then gazetted? Who held it back?

Has the Penang Structure Plan, now being reviewed, taken into account climate change? If not, it should be sent back to the drawing board. Seriously.

How about checking out this Aliran talk on Climate Change on Tuesday, 21 November?