7th June 2008: Bad weekend: working, Penampang floods again, skipped: company family day, friend’s wedding
June 7th, 2008If I have ever done live blogging when floodwaters downstairs are rising, now would be it.
In Penampang, not-so-heavy rain started 4 something pm, but by 6pm the Moyog river was already threateningly swollen. So, it’s 25th April all over again.
Thank God, it was not as bad as the last time.
The meter-high barrier around the house was swamped just after 7pm:
As at 7.18pm it was chest-level…
…which of course would again showcase the disappearing staircase:
Here are how the above pictures would look like during flood-free times, respectively:
Monitoring the water level every 15 minutes, it peaked at a few inches more, around 8.30pm.
So this latest event seems to have summed up my weekend so far.
First, it was a full-day working Saturday from 7am, when we had a statewide network and applications disaster recovery drill.
This drill had already caused some of us to skip the company family day in Kundasang which so happened to fall on the same day. Never mind, I thought, I still have a friend’s wedding in Tamparuli to look forward to. But no, by the time I left the office in Likas around 4, it was already raining cats and dogs.
I had to double up shopping at Central Plaza because the wife said the river’s going to spill over anytime.
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so skrg?? tidak hujan lagi bah kan….
Hujan stop lebih awal, tapi level air hanya berhenti naik pada 8.30pm
Hi Ben, I also live in Penampang but its a bit higher than ground level so normally kalau banjir it doesnt effect my place… but still the roads leading out to Donggongon cut off lah. I didn’t even know it flooded on the 25th of April until I went out the next day and say the ‘flood marks’ on the roadside (altho I do recall heavy rain that day). It is quite usual these days tho, hujan continually for more than 3 hours, and it floods. Last time it used to take a whole lot longer!
Hi Charlene: the house we’re living in now is many years old – we’re building a new house across the road, which, after spending a lot of money on “timbun tanah”, we think should be flood-free.
Then again, as you said, another problem is the road leading out. I will always remember the 2 great floods of 1999 and 2004 – the Inobong road must’ve been chest-deep in floodwaters!
I was in Kgau yesterday when hubby SMSed telling tat the water rose up again ystrday. Ngam2 dorang masi berpartay at the kg Hubah Kaamatan lagi tu.
Lucky ur house isn’t ground level punya kan.
My in-laws house…hishh…pening kepala everytime the siren kena kasi bunyi. Have to pack things up to the 1st floor.
Not ground level, but still have many things there to move. There’re cars there, a bedroom, a storeroom, etc…
And I didn’t hear the siren going off last night. It seems that this always happens when the water rises too fast (as happens when the people manning the dam lets it).
i think kan itu sungai sana mau kena kasi dlam suda o…or soemthing yg can prevent all this flood
There’s an article on this topic in DE by a prominent local engineer several years ago. He overviewed the reasons why it’s so easy to flood here and possible solutions.
Among reasons:
- river is too flat & hills in the interior too steep cause water to fill up and overwhelm the river
- river twists and turns: affects flow speed
- sedimentation: either from construction work, rubbish throwing etc
One of the solutions (if I remember correctly, fixing the dead Putatan river and clearing the sand blocking the estuary) seemed to have worked, where it did not flood for quite a long time (I think more than a year, which was highly unusual) no matter how heavy it rained. But then the floods returned with a vengeance and things seemed to have returned to normal i.e. 3 to 4 times flood in a year, usually caused when the dam sluicegates are opened.
Another solution is what you mentioned i.e. making the river deeper like what they did in Klang Valley. I dont know what happened to the good engineer’s suggestion – this is a good point to pursue with the MP.
In KL it was raining throughout the night too like more than 3 hours.
hehe.. luckily ur house got Tiang… :P
Ada beberapa sebab kenapa banjir:
1) upstream catchment area sdh habis – meaning sudah kena clear so capacity upstream untuk storage air hujan sdh teruk say tinggal 30% lagi efficiency sebelum di clear.
2) Banyak kawasan flood retentation sudh di tebus guna, contoh land wet area. Ketika hujan turun, surface rain runoff akan berkumpul dikawasan ini sebelum mengalir ke waterbody (sungai, laut). Tetapi jaga kawasan wetland ini sdh di occuppied dengan earth reclamation, dimana lebihan surface runoff mao pergi, dia akan cari tempat kawasan rendah dulu sebagai ganti wetland tadi.
3. Air pasang laut akan naik se inchi setiap 1 kilometer ke upstream. Dengan activitity reclamation manusia yang tidak terancang (tidak meminta nasihat hydrology Engineer) terutama kawasan capaian air-pasang surut, maka kawasan kasawan rendah yg belum di reclaim akan mengalami banjir dan bertambah teruk jika hujan lebat dan Air pasang berlaku serentak. Dan bertambah parah lagi kalau bumi, bulan dan matahari berada dalam kedudukan yang selari dimana bulan sangat hampir pada bumi (Tarikan gravity). Dan bertambah dasyat lagi jika berlaku pada peralihan cuasa mosoon di Asia Tenggera.
4. System perparitan tidak terancang oleh DID. Maintenance dan sebagai. I dont know samada DID ada minta nasihat Hydrologist dan Topograpist atau tidak. Kamurang tinguk saja sungai Putatan yang hujungnya di Duvansoon. Dulu di tutup terus, apabila kerap banjir baru di buka semula. “Flip-flop” Menunjukkan kansung tiada kajian dibuat. Terantuk dulu baru men’Aduh’.
dan banyak lagi… will elobrate later if have time.
Eben. where u bersantai weekend?
Wow very enlightening – you should write a full article on this. I am really looking forward to it, especially the causes and what can be done. Otherwise I feel that I should move out of Penampang!
Being a family, my “bersantai” is usually spent going on day outings with my family.
waaaa nampak macam kolam ikan suda tu… serious juga banjir sana tu.
SO WHAT ARE ALL THOSE WAKIL RAKYATS DO??????? MOGINUM ALL NITE LONG?????????????????? AND COULDNT CARE LESS???????????? DONT VOTE FOR THEM….. INSTEAD VOTE FOR, UNDILAH, UNDIO NOH, AFUNDI STACY!!!!!!!!!
ALAMAK! TERLEBIH SUDAH!!
Another contributor of the flood…
Kalau kamurang mengikuti perkembangan cuaca (Meterology), sebenarnya sekarang adalah musim panas (Bukan musim hujan) according to the 20 years history dan peralihan (Udara sejuk utara- china ke Asia dengan udara panas kawasan khatulistiwa ) angin monsson yng melanda sabah sekarang sepatutnya tidak melanda Sabah. Laluan angin monsoon ini pada asalnya adalah di Tengah-tengah laut china selatan (Kalau kena Borneo pun sepoi-sepoi sahaja). But why suddently (recently) the route of this peralihan angin monson change n it seem approching Borneo and again.. masa peralihan sebenarnya telah berubah sedikit demi sedikit from early each year to now bulan jun?
Kawasan hutan (salah satu) adalah pengKontrol aliran ini, Now banyak kawasan hutan (kawasan sejuk) sudah di tebang di Borneo. Kawasan2 hutan yg telah ditebang ini telah meningkat suhunya (Image Satelit menunjukkan kawasan merah di berneo semakin besar berbanding 20 tahun dulu). Pengaliran Perubahan tekanan udara adalah dari kawasan sejuk ke kawasan panas. Dahulu laut china selatan lebih panas berbanding dengan hutan menghijau di Borneo. Sekarang banyak hutan di Borneo botak menyebabkan menjadi penyerap haba matahari yang lebih baik berbanding dengan laut. Lantas itu, Tanah darat lebih panas benanding laut, menyebabkan ketika peralihan angin monsson berlaku yg sepatutny sebelum in mengalir melalui laut china selatan telah terubah laluan nya mendekati tanah borneo yang lebih panas. Sebab itu lah menyebabkan kini aliran monsoon sudah pusing stereng ke Borneo. Perubahan masa monsoon pula diakibatkan suhu global, sebab pergerakan angin moonson ini bertindakbalas dengan masa pengaliran monsoon lain-lain yang ada di lautan Hindi.. dsbgnya.
Will elobrate how to mitigate or to handle this flood problem later on if i hv time.
Ebenzer, where is Apollo Chan now? or Madlaju, u remember them?
I am still not sure who you are :-) Anyway, Apollo Chan rings a very small bell and I remember Mad Laju Balamu my class monitor 23 years ago. No idea where they are now.
Im ur close friend during SBPS time. I remember one time, it was speculated that a spot check for panjang rambut on the next morning assembly. So, everybody busy looking for professional hair cutter since its already almost 6:00pm mao gelap sudah bah.., that time, sia baru naik bukit dari padang ke asrama and singgah sebentar di tempat jemuran santut…(Pakaian). I saw u there tengah operate kepala c Appollo Chan and sia mendekati ingin melihat. From my observation, u not a good hair cutter but seem to be Bidan Terjun…, U saw me but u didnt asked me to take over the job becoz u dont know that i can do that. And that actually i want, i dont want to reveal myself to fellow student that i know how to cut hair in style..
And since both of u are my friend, i stay there for a while to see what will happen soon.., i saw ur hand bergetar (gagaran) and Appollo Chan also look like confuse… with his two small mirrors (Cermin muka) kiri kanan. But the good is u still have the spirit/energy to continue the cutting and Appollo also still give u the 100% trust eventhough sometimes his mata pandai membesar bila melihat dua side mirror / cermin muka nya.
Last2, i cant stand anymore, sia ketawa kuat2 and asked the gunting from u and gunting rambut c Appollo. The moment sia start mengunting, c Appollo bilang.. ahh… ini bunyi baru macam bunyi gunting mengunting… and dia kasi turun pegangan cermin2nya kebawah and he didnt curious anymore to see how his kepala rambut to be cut off.
And Ben u remember? the moment sia siapkan gunting rambut c Appollo, ada 5 orang pelajar sdh menunggu di belakang bebaris minta gunting. I still remember the 5 Kepala finish in 15 munites. I had to finish it fast coz mao gelap sdh and i told the 5 friends that for that moment its will be ok. Tommrow come see me and i kasi santik2.., for today is only to cut minimum to avoid being cut ‘BARUT’ by the guru displine. And Ben, till then.. sia selalu saja sibuk menggunting rambut fellow students… and thats why actually y at first i didnt tell u…pasal gunting..mengunting…
And u know … U are one of my greatest guru Mathematic Tambahan..
Arios..
OK I know who you are, EIA consultant, no wonder you know so much about floods ;-)
Amazing, that small detail more than 20 years ago you still remember. I only remember the more interesting ones. BIla saya search balik gmail tadi, masih ada pula saya punya email ttg ni di ex-SBPS yahoogroups (you should join if not yet) pada 22 Februari 2006 iaitu (saya copy n paste dari sana ni):
- Cikgu Rozaimi, during orientation week, could not find any fault with Patrick Majatig (tallest of all of us at 5’10″), so he said: “ooohhh….awak lebih tinggi daripada saya ya???”
- Kamarul Ariffin Abdul Karim (pengawas) kena tumbuk perut oleh Cikgu Halim semasa assembly pagi masa tengah-tengah nyanyi lagu Negaraku.
- Syadan Ginu’s shortest sajak: “api, kutiup, ia mati!”
- Also, Syadan has the loudest sneeze ever.
- Amir Atong, Feb 1985: “Saya bakar seluar kamu semua!!!”
- A teacher asking Mad Laju Balamu during orientation week: “Mad Laju? Laju ker? berapa saat 100 meter?”
- A teacher asking Idris Abdul (born 6th July 1971, but already in Form 4 in 1985!) during orientation week: “Hah??? 13 tahun dah tingkatan empat????”
- During a class, Mad Laju, seated right at the front of the class, sneezed and his giant, green phlegm landed on the floor, right in front of the female teacher, who could only utter an disgusted: “eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee…”
- Either Sapawi (now YB Datuk) or Cikgu Harun Ahmad: “saya dapati ada pelajar keluar ke bandar bagi alasan “adala.” Apa tu “adala”??? Nak beli sekotak “adala”???
- I remember one “persembahan” night in the hall, when most of the performances were boring. But one group of juniors [including apparently Sabar Lapolo] did the unthinkable, they did a “wild dance”. I thought: oooeerrr..they’d HAD it. And I was right: later I heard shrieks of pain backstage as Cikgu Halim membelasah all of them.
- I remember early 1985 where the Ketua Pengawas was changed at least 2-3 times, because he and his cronies (in the 6th form) were the gangsters, including allegedly stuffing socks into Form 1 student’s mouths. that included that Chinese-looking tall guy (forgot his name), Mohd Amir Pawenari (correct me if I’m wrong), and Jaafar Ungki. Cronies included Mohd Haljimi. At last Awang Damit Mokhtar became the Ketua Pengawas because he was the goody-goody type.
- I hope the Paulson Linggi in the news for the wrong reasons is not THE Paulson Linggi at SBPS.
- World Cup Final 1986: TV room is off limits at 3am, BUT who wouldn’t want to watch Maradona at his peak? The lashings the next day was worth it. And thank you Warden Asrama (En Harun) for at least letting us watch it; he only came in about 2 minutes before the end. I remember Majalah Sekolah (SASILA II) 1986 when Edward Pius William did a poem containing the line: “World Cup 1990 tidak begini lagi.”
- Neil Anduang Orow sneaking smokes in the locker :-)
- I remember one occasion where a sports team from another school came to SBPS to have a match. We were astonished when we saw one of their students smoking openly in the padang. Ahmad Rhobinuddin had that incredulous look on his face when he shouted “HOOIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!”
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I hope I put a smile to your face by the above… dalam forum tu yang hebat-hebat dulu pun ada tambah: Hednan Hassan, Adilun Nurun, Shahrunizam etc
OK enuf of that. Now:
- looking forward to what you think are what’s needed to solve or minimise flash flooding in Penampang.
- has such suggestions been done before, and submitted to relevant parties?
- what happened to the suggestions?
To solve the flood..
1) The very first basic… give the nature back what the own before… upstream reforest… i heard one pokok from India (lupa namanya) have very long akar that can hold/keep the groundwater table high… meaning… that pokok could store the rainwater underground lebih lama… and only release to the sungai/stream slowly.. (no flash flood). Sungai itu akan mempunyai air yang lebih banyak (bukan melimpah) pada masa yang lebih lama… ikan2 pun buli hidup bahagia…
2)…
2…
Flood Discharge Formulae
Q=CIA
Q=Flowrate Discharge
C= Surface coefficient: Permukaan hutan (dengan tumbuhan permukaan yng sangat complex =0.9-1, Permukaan Jalan raya bertar or cement or botak = 0.1-0.01),
I=Intensity of Rain in Minutes
A: Catchment Area (Kawasana tadahan especially upstream.
First, to identify how big the upstream catchment (Acres) area of Penampang. The catchment arae should calculated from the kawsan yang affected banjir till to peak of bukit/gunung. The other side of bukit is already different catchment.
Second, Identify how big the kerosakan hutan (to value the C) and divide into beberapa bahagian according to the kebotakan dan kehutanan permukaan.
Third, go to meterology department, ask the pegawai, what the maximum Rain Intensity of Penampang/Moyog catchment area. Ask the Intensity Rain for Maximum 50 years return period.
Then, calculate the maximum flowrate discharge due to the Heavy rain. Calculate the capacity of flowrate discharge of penamponag/moyog river. If Flowrate discharge of Rain Surface runoff bigger then the capacity of river flowrate discharge, then definitely…. memang banjir. Lebih besar perbezaannya maka lebih cepat air sungai melimpah dan lebih cepat berlaku flash flood..
Perlu di ingat, ini baru flood pasal hujan, belum campur high tide n tarikan graviti bulan.
Faktor2 berubah… pembangunan setempat (soil erosion), maintenance sungai parit (Tumbuhan di tengah2), sampah sarap block, dasar sungai menjadi cetek, reclamation (Block aliran asal Sungai), reclamation berhampiran dengan muara pantai laut.. etc
3..
This Q=CIA also used to calculated the capacity Discharge of Parit2 or longkang2 near to your resident or area. This formula can be used to design how big the longkang or parit in ur area should be construct that effective enuff to discharge the rain discharge to the nearest sungai. Kalau tidak sempat bertakung/flood setempat. Sebab ini lah yang berlaku di beberapa jalan terutama jalan Sulaman, Jalan Tuaran Lama, Jalan Lintas… mungkin juga jalan Penampang? Cuba tengok system perparitan ditempat-tempat berlaku banjir setempat ini.
Sia rasa kegagalan Drainage sytem ini adalah disebabkan mereka design dengan hanya mengambilkira rain surface runoff dari permukaan jalan raya berturap saja tanpa mengambil kira surface runoff dari kawasan berhampiran. Dimana surface runoff ini pergi selepas pembinaan jalanraya menghalang aliran asal surface runoff tadi…
Continue….
Makanya, please check ur own parit…, mana hujungnya, is the parit connected to another bigger one of parit, and check again is the bigger one connected to a bigger one then the first.. untill it connect to sungai…., is the respectively parit dimension correct, corect, correct? according to the Q=CIA? Pembayangnya seolah-olah seperti urat-urat dalam daun kayu. Cabang-cabang urat daun ini umpama parit2 kecil (or sungai kecil), urat daun besar yg di tengah2 tu umpamanya Sungai Moyog lah atau Longkang besar….
Andai kata anda tidak menjumpai hujung parit di rumah anda atau hujung parit yang anda jumpa hilang di semak-semak belukar tanpa timbul2 hujungnya, maka sah! Suruh kerajaan buat highway flyover di penampang dan bina rumah anda seperti Taman Babylon….
Ben, which test good for u? Beer or Heineken or any others?
Memang semua parit di Penampang di jambatan jalan Papar Lama tu langsung tiada connected ke sungai!
Anyway, kalau sungai sudah overflow, memang tiada jalan juga tu air.
Kalau kasi dalam itu sungai apamacam bos? Boleh kah? Kos dia entah berapa…
Ttg beer, bukankah Heineken itu sejenis beer?
..limpas menyampuk sikit… I loike Heineken! :P
Tapi ada orang yg “experienced” kasi tau saya, antara semua beer popular di Malaysia, content sugar Heineken talampau tinggi. Oleh itu tidak digalakkan. Yang terbaik adalah harimau di bawah pohon kelapa tu :-)
Bah… harimau di bawah pohon kelapa punya pun my favorite..