SPECIAL REPORT | On a sunny Thursday afternoon, Penangites residing in Taman Free School set about cleaning up their homes and shops in the wake of devastating floods that had occurred days before.

Mattresses, cushions, and wooden furniture lined the streets, waiting to be collected and sent to a landfill by Penang Island City Council (MBPP) workers.

Like many Penangites, the residents had had thousands of ringgit worth of belongings, including their cars, and electrical appliances, damaged or destroyed in the deluge that hit Penang on the weekend of Nov 4.

But for some, the damage had gone beyond the loss of property.

Lim Eng Heong, 65, shuffled about her shop at the Taman Free School flats which sells Chinese prayer items, browsing through her inventory to look for goods damaged by the flood waters.

One of the items was a box of paper offerings, which she chucked onto a growing pile of damaged goods outside her shop.

"That's money. I am throwing away money," Lim told Malaysiakini, a wry smile flashing across her weary face.

"Take a look at all my things, these are all ilek pochek (gone to nothing in Tamil)," she said, waving her hands over boxes of joss sticks.

She added that two piles of goods had already been cleared earlier in the day by Rela volunteers.

Lim was just one of many Penangites whose livelihoods had been adversely disrupted by the floods.

The shopkeeper did not know how to estimate the losses she had suffered, saying she was "going crazy" thinking about it.

None of her losses will be covered by insurance, as neither her shop nor her home are insured.

A double whammy

Across the Penang Strait in Bukit Mertajam on the mainland, entrepreneur couple Hamizah Che Amat, 46, and Amizudin Ahmat, 48, made their way through their kitchen, which on Wednesday was still filled with ankle-deep water.

Resigned to fate, Hamizah spoke with a tired smile about how the ingredients she used to make cakes and cookies had all been spoiled by the flood waters.

"I can't even bake, the oven doesn't work anymore," she casually added.

In the back room of their house were piles of political party flags Amizudin had printed in 2013, including rolls of old DAP flags which they had recently cleared from storage to sell, but were now unusable as the colour had started to run.

For Hamizah and Amizudin, the Nov 4 flood was a double whammy, as their house had also been hit by floods earlier on Sept 15.

"We haven't even gotten the RM400 aid from the Penang state government yet (for the September flood)," Amizudin said.

The PKR candidate for the Bayan Lepas state seat in 2004 said that while he understood that processing the aid application would take time, he was concerned that people would get angry at the state government for the perceived delay.

Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng had announced that each family hit by this month's floods would get RM500 in cash aid.

However, it is a pittance compared to the damages and lost income suffered by many.

Saving what he can

Even heroes such as Taman Free School's Sapno Tukijo had not been spared from the hardships that follow after a flood.

Though he is mostly known as the bilal, or muezzin, of the neighbourhood surau, his service to God is voluntary and does not come with a paycheck.

Instead, Sapno works as a housing repair and renovations contractor to sustain his family.

But many of the tools of his trade were submerged by flood waters the same night he gave refuge and shelter to some 70 Taman Free School residents at the surau.

"The tools that were affected, cost about RM40,000 in total...I'll try to save what I can, but whatever 'explodes' will have to be thrown away," he said, adding that coming up with the money to replace the damaged tools will take time.

He can still find work in the meantime, but without his tools, he said it would be difficult as he would either have to borrow or rent the necessary items.

Not making money is not an option for the father of six, as his three eldest children are still in university and still need his financial support.

"They have PTPTN loans but that is not enough. Sometimes they call me, saying they only have RM5 left for food, so I will have to work hard to give them some money," he said.

‘It’s all gone’

Others whose livelihoods were severely affected by the deluge were paddy farmers on the mainland.

67-year-old farmer Samsudin Shaari had been sleeping in the back of his truck in Kampung Baharu, Tasek Gelugor since Saturday when Malaysiakini met him on Wednesday.

He had parked the truck on the road overlooking a brackish lake of knee-deep floodwater which surrounded Samsudin and his neighbours' homes and engulfed their paddy fields.

His nephew, Muhamad Nazirul Idirus said the family had just germinated their paddy seeds and were about to plant them when the floods hit.

"Now all the seedlings are gone, so we have to start all over again," Muhamad Nazirul said.

Samsudin added that they would have to get new fertiliser too.

"It's all gone. Paddy seeds, fertiliser, those aren't cheap," he said.

The flooding could set Samsudin and other farmers back by four to five months.

Several farmers Malaysiakini spoke to said they had been expecting to reap a harvest by January.

But now, the earliest they can harvest their crop may be in April.

Agriculture and Agro-Based Industry Minister Ahmad Shabery Cheek said yesterday that aid for farmers in Penang and Kedah that were affected by floods was being finalised, to ensure that only those who were affected receive help.

The floods in Penang last weekend were triggered by a tropical disturbance. Seven lives were lost.