Family escapes catastrophic mud flood in Sabah

KOTA KINABALU - A father carried his toddler while his three other children ran hand in hand as they hurried to escape a mud flood that flowed from a hill behind their house, carrying boulders and debris.

Within minutes, their leisurely afternoon hangout session descended into a nightmare, leaving them homeless in Kampung Sarapung, Penampang, in Malaysia’s Sabah state.

“One moment I was watching television shows with my younger children and the next, we had to run for our lives,” said civil servant Oliver Golingai, 44.

Recalling that stormy day around 3pm on Sept 11, he said he first heard a snap from one of the pipes outside his house.

“I went to check and saw that the main water pipe had broken. I saw that a stream behind my house had grown muddy, and trees were starting to fall,” he said.

“So I called all my children to gather their important documents and belongings because we needed to get out fast.”

However, just as Mr Golingai ended that sentence, he saw mud water flowing into his garage, so he quickly grabbed his two-year-old toddler and screamed for the others, aged 10, 15 and 17, to run to his parents’ house.

As they ran downhill, they saw from afar the hill behind them collapse, bringing with it mud, trees and boulders that crashed into their house.

The next day, Mr Golingai went to check and saw that half the house was submerged in mud and earth, while the other part was filled with mud water and debris.

“I don’t think there is anything salvageable,” he said, adding that excavators were needed to clear the debris from his house.

After the incident, Warisan president Mohd Shafie Apdal and his team visited the family on the morning of Sept 13, though there were no visits from officials from government departments yet.

“Maybe because our house is quite isolated and enters from a different junction than the other houses affected,” explained Mr Golingai.

This landslide also destroyed several other houses, but not as badly as his. One other house was also severely damaged, with two people feared buried.

One woman survived with minor injuries, while an elderly man, 97, was found dead a day later.

This landslide was among the dozens of incidents recorded over the past week, following daily rain and thunderstorms that hit various parts of the state.

Floods were reported in many areas, with Penampang, Beaufort and Tawau being the worst hit.

Hundreds of people were evacuated, and the Civil Defence Department recorded a total of 437 victims from 128 households being displaced.

A total of 23 villages are affected as at 8am on Sept 13.

Moyog Parti Gagasan Rakyat division head, Datuk Ceasar Mandela Malakun, who is also political secretary to Sabah’s Chief Minister Hajiji Noor and Democratic Action Party’s Kapayan assemblyman Jannie Lasimbang, were among the leaders who had visited flood sites and displaced victims. THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK