Mud flood: Last year's tragedy helps make action plan more structured

The mud flood tragedy in Bertam Valley in October last year provided invaluable lessons to the search and rescue (SAR) team.

Pahang Fire and Rescue Department deputy director, Morni Mamat said his team incorporated in their contingency plan a lot of things that were learnt from last year’s tragedy.

"We learn from experience and prepared a better-structured evacuation plan which was carried out yesterday after the disaster struck in Bertam Valley.

"Last year, help came late as we didn’t expect such a tragedy to strike, and coincidentally, our team was involved with another case elsewhere at the time," Morni told Astro AWANI when met at the SAR operation in Bertam Valley today.

He said, orderly preparation had allowed a quicker response to the distress call they received on the mud flood disaster yesterday.

Last night, the department received a distress call at 7.04pm. The first team to arrive at the disaster location in 35 minutes was from the Brinchang Fire Station.

Morni said the Fire and Rescue Department, together with various other agencies executed follow-up steps to ensure the action plan worked.

Among them were the implementation of last year’s Evacuation Plan, with this year having the cooperation of other agencies including the Royal Malaysian Police and the Cameron Highlands District Council in preparing residents for the risks they face.

The public announcement system in the area had also been upgraded to facilitate residents better, he added.

Meanwhile, the local authority has also implemented a plan to widen the rivers there to reduce the risk of a disaster.

The Fire and Rescue Department team, known as Storm with 20 personnel, resumed operations at 7am today to locate missing victims, most of which are believed to have been buried under the mud or swept away by flood waters.