It must been catastrophic for those working in KL especially Jalan Ipoh, PWTC, Jalan Duta and its environs. Yet another thunderstorm rippied through the city and within a few minutes, caused hours of delay, and $$ losses for businesses in KL. Here's a news report:
Chaos as flash floods hit city
By : Fadhal A. Ghani and Alang BendaharaThousands of city folk were affected by the flash floods following a two-hour downpour yesterday evening. - Bernama picture |
KUALA LUMPUR: Sungai Gombak overflowed its banks causing chaos that had not been seen in more than three decades in the heart of the city yesterday evening.
The other areas affected by the flash floods included Bulatan Dato Onn, Pudu Raya, Pantai Dalam, Bangsar, Segambut, Jalan Raja Laut, Jalan Kuching, Jalan Ipoh, Jalan Pekeliling, Jalan Kinabalu, and Jalan Duta.
A Kuala Lumpur City Hall emergency unit spokesman said water levels started rising during a two-hour downpour which began just after 4pm.
Thousands of office workers were stranded in their buildings when power supply was cut off and thousands more endured more than three- hour jams for journeys which normally took 30 minutes.
City Fire and Rescue Department assistant director (operations) Azizan Ismail said they sent divers to the basement car park to look for victims, but fortunately there were none.
He said the basement car parks in surrounding buildings were also affected by flash floods.
Azizan added that the Sentul Fire and Rescue Department station which is situated just across PWTC was also hit by floods.
At Jalan Ipoh, which rarely sees flash floods, water levels were recorded at between one and two metres high, completely submerging vehicles.
To add to the city folks' woes, RapidKL's Kelana Jaya line LRT service, was also hit by a power failure which disrupted train operations for more than an hour beginning 5.58pm.
Power was restored gradually from 7.15pm and the train service resumed in stages. Normal service was restored at 7.47 this evening.
RapidKL chief executive officer Suffian Baharuddin said due to the power failure, massive passenger congestion was experienced at the LRT stations along the Kelana Jaya line. It took RapidKL several hours to clear the congestion.
Hers' s more pics:
Disastrous huh? Imagine if you'd been one of those whose car got flooded or stuck at PWTC. The MSM are of course downplaying the magnitude of the event by only cursory reporting, but questions are being raised about THE SMART tunnel which was supposed to contain the deluge of water from storms and prevent such occurences of floods. So what happened?
Here's some comments from The Malaysian Insider regarding the news:
Again?
written by MNair, March 03, 2009
Whatever happened to the SMART tunnel? Not so smart anymore, eh? What a waste of billions!
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SMART Tunnel??
written by Cyrus, March 03, 2009
written by Cyrus, March 03, 2009
Wow our SMART tunnel is so smart and effective!! I think it should improve its efficiency by flooding the UMNO building also!
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- +8
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written by DR Arshavin, March 03, 2009
written by DR Arshavin, March 03, 2009
Smart Tunnel.....?? What happened ??..after spending all the dumb money ??
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all the shit............
written by zuriana, March 03, 2009
written by zuriana, March 03, 2009
All the shit has inundated the "SMART" tunnel again .....all our money is gone to SMART POCKETS !
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written by nik271, March 03, 2009
written by nik271, March 03, 2009
all umno's fault. billions of ringgit of rakyat's money wasted on poor infrastructure. all because umno is corrupted.
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- +3
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Smart Tunnel 2 ?
written by FromFourthWorldCountry, March 03, 2009
written by FromFourthWorldCountry, March 03, 2009
Another BN money making project, why not we not yet bankrupt.
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written by Richard Yeo, March 03, 2009
written by Richard Yeo, March 03, 2009
aiyah SMART tunnel not meant for flood mitigation...it's SMART cuz it represents the intelligence of the cronies that got the job :)
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God is reminding..
written by JustAPowerlessMalaysian, March 03, 2009
written by JustAPowerlessMalaysian, March 03, 2009
Is God providing a reminder to the people at PWTC?
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- +4
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A RM2 billion SMART Disaster
written by HJ Angus, March 03, 2009
written by HJ Angus, March 03, 2009
They forgot that even with a SMART tunnel, drains must be cleared and grass cut on a regular basis.
Guess the DBKL folks are not so smart after all!
http://malaysiawatch2.blogspot.com/2007/06/kl-flooding-you-cant-stop-telling-lies.html
Guess the DBKL folks are not so smart after all!
http://malaysiawatch2.blogspot.com/2007/06/kl-flooding-you-cant-stop-telling-lies.html
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Flash Floods Wreak Havoc in KL & Government spending good money on silly project
written by kkh, March 03, 2009
written by kkh, March 03, 2009
Refer to the Opinion by John Lee on Feb 27 on Government spending good money on silly project and my comment on Feb 28.
Today incident has proved that the project implemented is not up to mark and with the extra water from Pahang, it will keep the main river all the time full with water and if there is rain, it will definitely create the flash floor problem and create a traffic standstill in KL and Selangor and certain parties are making money out of it and the rakyat suffer.
The main reason that the flash flood occur is that previously when there is rain, the rain water will be soak into the earth and it take hours or days to reach the river, with the development going one, all surface is either been concreted or tar, and this make the rain water reach the river within minute or second.
The best solution to reduce this flash flood is to enforce the retention pond on the ground to beautify the landscape or retention tank on top of condo or apartment, from the pond or tank, additional piping to use the water for flashing toilet, gardening, washing cars will not cost much and this will definitely good for the environment and use less treated water and this will definitely avoid the water privatise company from sucking more money from the rakyat.
By reduce of the flash flood, there will be less traffic jam and we can safe the precious time of our rakyat and less wastage of fuel which is one of the richest resources of our country where I do not know how was it been manage and how waste the wealth been distribute to the rakyat or just benefits certain party or crony. Not to mention the reluctant of the government to improvement the public transportation to save fuel to reduce the burden of the rakyat to avoid purchasing cars to avoid the below burdens
1)Paying the heavy duty for the car. (heavy duty on imported car)
2)Paying interest to the bank as most car purchase is on loan.
3)Paying the tolls rate which is keep on increasing
4)Paying the road taxes.
5)Paying the licences fees
6)Paying the fine if do not follow the law strictly, example wearing the safety belt at the back seat at the speed of less that 80km in the city, this is only encourage corruption for the none professional police and JPJ offices. While this is been fine, the person who break the speed limit and endanger other peoples life can get away easily by paying the nominal fines and the reckless driver who kill many and there is not heavy penalty to the driver and the bus company director.
7)Burning the fuel away so the Petronas can make extra profit but do not how they distribute the wealth of the nation
8)Burning the fuel away where the fuel price is higher than the market rate.
With the economy crisis, BN and PR should put there different aside and look into how to improve the economy and the welfare of Malaysia Rakyat and make sure all the project going to be implemented is transparent and benefit all Rakyat and not only benefit the crony of certain party.
Today incident has proved that the project implemented is not up to mark and with the extra water from Pahang, it will keep the main river all the time full with water and if there is rain, it will definitely create the flash floor problem and create a traffic standstill in KL and Selangor and certain parties are making money out of it and the rakyat suffer.
The main reason that the flash flood occur is that previously when there is rain, the rain water will be soak into the earth and it take hours or days to reach the river, with the development going one, all surface is either been concreted or tar, and this make the rain water reach the river within minute or second.
The best solution to reduce this flash flood is to enforce the retention pond on the ground to beautify the landscape or retention tank on top of condo or apartment, from the pond or tank, additional piping to use the water for flashing toilet, gardening, washing cars will not cost much and this will definitely good for the environment and use less treated water and this will definitely avoid the water privatise company from sucking more money from the rakyat.
By reduce of the flash flood, there will be less traffic jam and we can safe the precious time of our rakyat and less wastage of fuel which is one of the richest resources of our country where I do not know how was it been manage and how waste the wealth been distribute to the rakyat or just benefits certain party or crony. Not to mention the reluctant of the government to improvement the public transportation to save fuel to reduce the burden of the rakyat to avoid purchasing cars to avoid the below burdens
1)Paying the heavy duty for the car. (heavy duty on imported car)
2)Paying interest to the bank as most car purchase is on loan.
3)Paying the tolls rate which is keep on increasing
4)Paying the road taxes.
5)Paying the licences fees
6)Paying the fine if do not follow the law strictly, example wearing the safety belt at the back seat at the speed of less that 80km in the city, this is only encourage corruption for the none professional police and JPJ offices. While this is been fine, the person who break the speed limit and endanger other peoples life can get away easily by paying the nominal fines and the reckless driver who kill many and there is not heavy penalty to the driver and the bus company director.
7)Burning the fuel away so the Petronas can make extra profit but do not how they distribute the wealth of the nation
8)Burning the fuel away where the fuel price is higher than the market rate.
With the economy crisis, BN and PR should put there different aside and look into how to improve the economy and the welfare of Malaysia Rakyat and make sure all the project going to be implemented is transparent and benefit all Rakyat and not only benefit the crony of certain party.
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SMART tunnel is a Huge Longkang meant for collecting toll during dry season...
written by ThrowShoes, March 04, 2009
Who's the not so smart one here?written by ThrowShoes, March 04, 2009
SMART tunnel is a Huge Longkang meant for collecting toll during dry season...
Collecting toll is the main purpose, UMNO BN only smart for money.
Collecting toll is the main purpose, UMNO BN only smart for money.
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written by oik, March 04, 2009
If anyone here cared to check, they'd know that the SMART tunnel diverts floodwater from a different river than the ones that overflowed at PWTC and Jalan Ipoh yesterday. Dataran Merdeka used to get flooded quite frequently when there were very heavy downpours. Was it flooded yesterday?
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On reflection of yesterday evening, it was a blessing in disguise that we left late for the run 'cos by that time, it was pouring and I persuaded the girls to stay in (an inducement in the form of a Paandi dinner) rather than driving into KL for Carmen's pilates class. (Turns out got cancelled probably due to same reason) By the time we reached the NKVE and closer to Shah Alam, the rain had subsided, or rather we were away from the storm clouds. Though it threatened to pour before and during the run, the winds blew in the right direction and we were blessed with fine cool weather for the circle and on down on site. (Run was incomplete for many as the 2nd? 3rd? check could not be broken despite sweepers due to miscommunication!)
Again, GOD IS GOOD!!
