No end in sight: Floodwaters surrouding the Kota Baru city centre.- Bernama
KUALA KRAI: About 100 flood victims sheltering at a school in this Kelantan town are going hungry as they have not received any food or other supplies for the past 40 hours.
A flood victim from the area, Dr Azilah Mohd Ali, said she was told the victims who were at Sekolah Menengah Sultan Yahya Petra 1 had not received any aid, including food, since they moved there on Wednesday morning due to the rising waters in the area.
Azilah, who is a child dental specialist at the Sultanah Bahiyah Hospital in Alor Setar, Kedah, said nine of her relatives aged between seven and 27 were among the group of 100 victims now at the school.
Dr Azilah, who is on leave in Kelantan, was forced to seek shelter at a relatives’ house at Taman Krai Sentral at 4am on Wednesday after the area became flooded.
“I lost contact with my relatives who relocated to the school after their mobile phone batteries died,” Dr Azilah told Bernama.
Meanwhile, Kelantan Health director Datuk Dr Ahmad Razin Ahmad Mahir said the apparent power outage at the Kuala Krai Hospital was a temporary glitch and had been fixed after panic messages were shared on social media.
He said power had been restored after the army replenished the diesel supply for the hospital, which had been badly hit by the floods.
“Electricity is now back on and the hospital is operational,” he said when contacted, adding that even during the power outage on Thursday night, the hospital was able to provide manual medical treatment.
A Whatsapp message by one Dr Adibah Abdullah, a medical officer at the hospital, claimed that an anaesthesiologist had to incubate a baby in the dark as the generator had run out of fuel.
She also claimed patients in Intensive Care Unit and Critical Care Unit were using battery-operated breathing machines.
“If the electricity supply is not restored, we will take turns to do manual bagging but for how long?” she asked.
She added that helicopters had shown up but were unable to land anywhere nearby and turned back.
Patients were also forced to trudge up and down floors as there was no electricity and the lifts were not working.
Dr Razin said although the hospital had turned into an “island” with the water surrounding it, it was still operational although not fully.
“However, we have relocated more than 35 patients with the help of the army.
“We have also deployed 35 nurses and specialists to Kuala Krai Hospital,” he said.
He added that all hospitals in Kelantan would continue to provide healthcare services throughout this period of time.
Meanwhile, Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) has disconnected the power supply at 1,266 sub-stations which were submerged underwater in Pahang, Kelantan and Terengganu.
TNB senior general manager (Corporate and Communication Affairs) Datuk Mohd Aminuddin Mohd Amin said that the disconnection, which affected more than 63,200 accounts, was aimed at avoiding any short circuits.
Among those affected were 42,625 customers in Kelantan following the closure of the sub-stations in Kuala Krai, Gua Musang, Jeli, Machang, Tanah Merah, Kota Baru and Tumpat, he said in a statement yesterday.
