The 2011 Johor Flood – Hello From Kluang!

I’d usually be back in KL or in Singapore every weekend so I missed the continuous rain on Saturday to Sunday. It was raining very heavily all along the north south highway on Sunday evening and as I entered Kluang from the Ayer Hitam exit, army personnel can be seen gearing up for evacuation work in their big tanks and stuff. Unusually huge puddles of water were blocking parts of the trunk road in to Ayer Hitam.

I remember the 2006 flood in Johor was very bad and it made headlines for a couple of months as the situation would not let up. Since I’m only in Kluang for a few months, I might as well take the opportunity to go around town to see it for myself.

It rained the whole of Monday too and when it rains, patients won’t come for their dental treatments so I spent the better part of the day staring out the window at heavy downpours and at times, light showers. It never ever stopped, not even for a minute. But it was cold..like seriously cold. Everyone in Kluang was clad in a jacket like we were in Cameron Highlands or something. I had my scarf on. 🙂

Straight after work, I went about town checking the damage. By evening (around 6pm), most of the areas which were previously flooded have already cleared up, but the drains were still clogged up.

This is the Sungai Mengkibol river, the river that  I cross everyday to work. It’s usually tiny. This morning, it was easily about 6 feet lower already. I heard it overflowed on Sunday too.

The water level was usually high. Excuse my noobness, but the water level would also be affected by high tide/low tide, like the sea right?

Over on the other side, Sungai Mengkibol can be seen overflowing to a plot of land next to it. Even though I pass it everyday, I can’t for the life of me remember what it was…was it already a fishing plantation (omg think of the poor fishermen and his fish farm!! All swam away!) or a plantation with some huts in the middle. Either way, it still looks like flood.

Luckily they are just huts, which I am sure wouldn’t be too difficult to clean up. And it doesn’t look like anyone stays there permanently. But I could be wrong.

Just a shot of the wetness of it all. And how dreary it is.

Somewhere near the Yap Tau Sah area, Sungai Mengkibol comes up to the grassy banks. On normal days, the river is smaller than your average monsoon drain.

Maybe I can start a boating business.. RM2 to cross over in my sampan!

A nearby football field is totally submerged in water. Can imagine how muddy it will be the next day..ugh.

Walkways totally covered in ankle deep water.

This was taken in Kampung Melayu. Just the night before, water levels were about 2 feet deep.  The drains can overflow anytime.

More of the overflowing drain!

A little boy plays with the drain water. His mum nags at him a few seconds after the shot.

Most of the roads around my area now look like this. With mud stones strewn all about and big persistent puddles of water.

I’m not a very adventurous person plus being alone in Kluang, I hardly explore but choose to stay at home and cook and go online and just look forward to the weekend. After asking a few locals if there were anymore flooded spots, I was told that Sungai Sembrong was hit pretty bad. Thanks to Google Maps, I found myself about 10km away from town at an industrial area on a bridge with many other curious onlookers.

Luckily there was ample parking space at the bridge so everyone stopped their cars and played tourists. I was told by my friend Jonathan (whom I met up with for dinner after that. We were supposed to take the pictures together but he couldn’t get off work) that the river has actually risen up by about 20ft. That’s crazy!!

That is one ferocious flood.

Sucks to be the villagers there.

Nasty currents.

I hope they managed to turn off the power supply before anyone or any animals get electrocuted. 🙁

Everyone was holding a digital camera.

Cars parked along the bridge. I parked at a spot that was less dangerous, don’t worry.

A closer look at the TNB building.

You could like swim from the TNB building to the river, no problem.

The oil palm plantation is not spared either.

In UK they have their winter wonderland, we have our water mushyland!

Imagine what kind of animals are lurking in those waters…one of my friends (hey jen!) on fb said crocodiles! lol!

Got some boys to smile for me!

You can’t even differentiate between land and river anymore.
No bananas this time around for its owner!

I could literally walk from where I was to that fast flowing water.. scary! No wonder cars get carried away!

Further in would probably be more villages.. good luck to them. 🙁

So yeah, this is the situation in Kluang… and these are pictures of the subsided floods. Imagine what it was like when it was really flooded!

Managed to finish this post just as the clock strikes two! Okay, back to work and have a safe trip back to your hometowns people! Gotta head into Singapore later to pick Chee Kiang and hope the flood has cleared up along the NSE when we head back to Subang tomorrow. 😐