Floods: People in Yan slowly recovering, ready to move on

YAN: After almost a month of being traumatised by a harrowing flood incident, people in Yan are slowly regaining their spirit to move on with their life.

Yan district officer Tunku Iskandar Shah Tunku Muzaffar Shah said the community in Yan who was left distraught by the incident was slowly gaining their confidence to continue with their life as a result of support and assistance from various parties.

"It has now been almost a month (since the disaster), the assistance we received from many volunteers and non-governmental organisations, as well as government agencies, helped a lot.

"Now we can see that they are getting more high-spirited compared to before when they were traumatised by the disaster. Now I see their enthusiasm has returned," he said when met by reporters at the Mekar Prihatin programme hosted by the National Registration Department (NRD) with the flood victims here today.

He also expressed his appreciation to about 4,000 volunteers who came to help the victims and handed over donations since the tragedy struck on Aug 18.

"Now we are in the recovery phase, we want the community to continue with their routine activities, for them to work and do business as usual. Night markets, morning markets and farmer's markets will also reopen soon," he said.

On the safety of Gunung Jerai, he said the Department of Mineral and Geosciences Malaysia (JMG) is still conducting investigations and studies on the incident, adding that it will recommend measures that should be taken as preparations to cope with the risk of recurring incidents.

"JMG will report to me as the district disaster chairman and we monitor this matter daily. I am sure JMG will recommend the installation of an early warning system on the mountain to alert nearby residents," he said.

The flood disaster following a water surge phenomenon in Gunung Jerai on Aug 18 claimed six lives and affected about 800 houses in Yan and another 200 homes in the Merbok area in the Kuala Muda District.

-- BERNAMA