Environment minister says people don’t heed weather warnings - report
Environment and Water Minister Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man has reportedly said that people have failed to heed the government’s weather warnings because they were under the impression that floods only occur on the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia.
As a result, when floods hit areas beyond the east coast last week, they were unprepared to face it.
However, checks by Malaysiakini found...
Environment and Water Minister Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man has reportedly said that people have failed to heed the government’s weather warnings because they were under the impression that floods only occur on the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia.
As a result, when floods hit areas beyond the east coast last week, they were unprepared to face it.
However, checks by Malaysiakini found that very little warning was given before the floods occurred.
According to the Berita Harian report today, the minister was responding to criticism that the Meteorological Department (MetMalaysia) only issued warnings about continuous heavy rains throughout the Klang Valley, but made no mention of flood risk.
While conceding that improvements can be made to boost peoples’ confidence in MetMalaysia’s forecasts, he pointed out that the department’s forecasts were widely publicised through major TV stations.
“Moreover, MetMalasyia also prepares various kinds of applications to provide information regarding the weather, wind, waves, and all manner of weather information in the country.
“But how many people actually looked at it and cared? Now everyone is beginning to see the importance of the weather predictions,” he was quoted as saying.
However, checks on weather warnings issued by MetMalaysia through its Facebook page found that very little warning was given about the impending heavy rains before the flooding began.
The flooding was associated with Tropical Depression 29W, which made landfall near Kuantan on Dec 17 and caused severe flooding across Central Peninsular Malaysia. MetMalaysia made no mention of the incoming weather phenomenon as it developed over several days on the South China Sea.
The last time Malaysia suffered a direct hit from a tropical depression - essentially a weak typhoon - was in 2017, which brought severe flooding to Penang.
Too little, too late
However, MetMalaysia did issue several continuous heavy rain warnings and thunderstorm warnings in the run-up to the flood.
The continuous heavy rain warnings come in three tiers depending on severity – alert (yellow), severe (orange), and danger (red). It is typically accompanied by a colour-coded map highlighting the affected areas.
“Alert” means heavy rain is expected to occur within one to three days, or continuous rain is anticipated but not expected to be heavy.
“Severe” means continuous heavy rain is expected. This is defined as rain exceeding six hours with total rainfall of at least 60mm.
“Danger” means rainfall exceeding 240mm per day is expected.
Checks by Malaysiakini found that MetMalaysia issued its first continuous rain warning (below) for Selangor at 3.45pm on Dec 17, but it was only an “alert” level and only lasted until the next day. Prior to that, a “danger” warning was also issued for Kemaman in Terengganu and Kuantan in Pahang.
At 2pm on Dec 18, however, the warning level in Selangor was escalated directly from “alert” to “danger”.
Based on eyewitness accounts, many low-lying areas of the Klang Valley such as parts of Klang and Shah Alam were already flooded since the wee hours of that morning or even the night before.
At the time the “danger” warning was issued, Taman Sri Muda was already impassable even to heavy vehicles due to the severe flooding.
Flood warnings, meanwhile, fall under the jurisdiction of the Department of Irrigation and Drainage.
It issued several flood warnings for the East Coast in the run-up to the weekend’s flooding, namely for the districts of Setiu in Terengganu, Kuala Krai, Jeli, Machang, Tanah Mera, and Gua Musang in Kelantan, and Jerantut in Sungai Tembeling. These were predicted to occur between Dec 16 and Dec 17.
For the West Coast, however, the first mention of trouble only came on Dec 18 at 5.30pm, when it shared a MetMalaysia continuous heavy rain warning issued 30 minutes earlier.
Report this comment
Are you sure you want to delete this comment?
This action cannot be undone.