26 January 2015
Flood relief continues every weekend (and time off work ) has given me some 12 days of time to assist people in the past 30 days till I took last weekend off on compulsory break. Even days back at work are spent preparing and repairing vehicles and organising aid. THis weekend have another 4 days of flood relief coming.
SUmmary
Floods have covered much of Kelantan and a lot of Pahang with whole towns being flooded completely and destroyed.
The Malaysia Emergency Disaster Rescue Foundation - Elite 4x4 Search & REscue SQUAD which I belong to has had 3 convoys out helping
2 to help the ORang Asli whose villages either got wiped out or the ones deeper in the jungle (10k in or more) got cut off by smashed bridges and the rain whacking their traditional crops.
1 to the town of Manek Urai Lama which was 8000 people - was there is nothing left except foundations they are up there giving out food water tents accommodation medical assistance and now heading out to more remote villages to give out food etc
my convoy for past 5 weeks has been to head into the jungle and pass out food parcels to the some 20-30 villages the rest are getting drops by helicopter all funded by private donations. Some days it takes 10 hours to go 10k as we have to rebuild bridges every time we go through and back/
THis video of the bridge building shows the efforts going into to get to the farest village Pos Gob some 90k into the jungle the loggers have 45 days to get there. THey are also getting assistance from the trapped loggers building roads from the other side.
Back for 5 days after 4 spent assisting from Jan 1-4 31st December was spent buying goods courtesy of work giving me the day off to prepare.
I'm working as part of the Malaysia Emergency Disaster Rescue Force - Elite 4x4 Rescue Squad
Took one convoy of 12 4x4's all loaded up those who Know Stiven Sim of 4x4 SHoppe closed up his business to just take goods for the trip 10 tonnes we collected in 1 week - Stopped counting the goods going into the mighty TROOPY at 750kg and then kept filling it from a 3tonne lorry load delivered to my house then loaded up 130l diesel and more goods and then my camping gear and finally loaded up the passenger seat to the roof.
My Convoy took 7+ hours to go 280k traffic was so bad convoy's of 4x4 pickup heading north I counted over 10 and trucks loaded with kit. 8 of the trucks are RFC capable the others soft.
Eventually we reached base CAMP 4pm where 10 tonnes of goods was already unloaded by by STivens convoy the previous morning. There is 7-8 4x4s already there and 1 motor bike in our COnvoy an Aussie on his way from Ozztralia to Iceland but has got stuck in Malaysia for 2 years - woman struck lol.
Friday morning convoy starts 9.16am all reloaded max 500kg for the 2 troopies the rest max 200kg 8 vehicles line up and 2 motor bikes (the other I will not say much he was an annoying idiot who endangeroured our lives which started with i'm going for a ride at midnight just after he arrived into the darkness of the jungle stupid farking fool)
Stivens convoy is also loaded up and going to other Orang Asli villages to the left of our camp i'm going RIGHT goal 20k away to a village called Kg Tohoi which called on 22/12/2014 saying out of food and water rising.
10 hour later we have battled our way across 1 broken bridge bypassed 2 bridges which need serious repair and the troopy has smashed its way across 2 landslides hacked out felled trees chainsawed trees swept over the road (left them cut long for bridge building on the way back) through mud 12 inches deep we are exhausyeand have all the numbers of villages and damage and dropped off food on the way. A group comes up behind us 3 v3ehicles loaded with manual labor saying they are going to fix the broken bridge - I laugh have you seen it - NO - here is the pic as we take a peek in their trucks - 1 new chainsawy - 2 brandspanking new shovels - all wearing brancd new Colombia shirts with pacling creases and new BOOTS, Robo the Kiwi army engineer walks away laughing - THey join our convoy on the bypass route - One bridge bypass takes 2 hours the 3 vehicle rescue squad behind us chickens out and turns back
Everyone is heartbroken. THe last bridge OMG last time through here we ran through the river as the bridge was gone and climbed the 15foot sandbank this time the bank is gone and filled with soft mud. THe water too swift and no anchor point there.
Motorbikes can get through and villages coming back in complaining of exorbitant food prices for 50rm they can barely get a bag of rice and a drink
. Makes us more determined.
WE write a note and give to a villager to the plantation manager we know is on there come and meet us tomorrow to help with a vehicle if you can we will return.
MEantime the idiot motorbike guy disappeared at 10am and has not been seen since - fark him he never signed my indemnity form.
We head back and decide to miss the 2 hour detour and fix the bridge it's now 7pm 20 mins to darkness. I'm confined to myTROOPY my heart rate is sitting on 160 and had been all arvo The risk of heart failure is too great. 7.07pm the idiot turns up saying he is back to save us he has been in to Kg Tohoi and back to base camp - Hmmmmmm why did we never see him.
Bridge fixed dodgy as I am the first one across and get stuck winch cable out as the 3 wenches get stuck in the thick mud hooking the cable to the power pole 30 meters away lol.
On way back we drop of goods and also find another bypass after the other TROOPY had to rescue a and rover from a busted bridge escorting 2 of them out before rejoinging us.
Back abase camp 8:52pm exhausted hungry and wow dinner is all cooked and waiting for us unbelieveable support
Then we get the story - the idiot rider went back to camp and told them he saved us . What he did not tell us was he told the villages to be at the river at 7.00am to collect the goods from us. Fark idiot some 25 RFc's Borneo safaris 10-25 years of jungle experience each and this idiot on his first trip has saved us bible bashing evangelist idiot. I ask for him to be removed from CAMP and never wanna see him again.
day 3 out we go again loaded up and rolling 9.00am we reach the temp bridge fix from last night quite fast and the bridge builder is there from the loggers. Chainsaw as tall as he is. Man of few words he is waiting for fuel. I give him my chainsaw petrol and 2 stroke. He is happy then they ask for another chainsaw and they have the logs we dragged down yesterday and start splitting them longways with 2 chainsaws into 3" slices. 2.5 hours later we have a bridge repaired. Hey wait a minute why is there some 20 montorbikes waiting for US. then the impact of the idiots visit is apparent he got to the village and told them 7am we would be here. THey left their village 5am
We send them to base camp to get fuel and food for their families.
I'm first its all ok. THe 2nd troopy at the back wrecks the bridge - repair on way back.
Finally at the bridge I won't mention the 100 meter mudhole and the 200meter logging skid pan sideways fun.
There is a group waiting for us one Hilux pickup and 1 4x4 tractor. We ask them to go get the plantation tractor and come back - we wait and have lunch.
If you wanna see pics before I add them here go to FB and look for elite 4x4 search & rescue squad or you can join me on David J. Stewart on FB
MORE and a better story and some pics later when I am fully rested.
THe FLOOD - River Gallas comes from Cameron Highlands where all the illegal landclearing has occurred for past 20 years. THe rain exceptionally bad this year. 1000mm+ in 3 days. Sungai Gallas runs through Gua Musang up to 40feet rise . THen it runs down past Orang Asli villages this time it rose and went over some 50feet high - terrifying. THen Gallas meets 3 other rivers all of which backed up due to logging - sigh . Places we thought safe camping spots - NEVER AGAIN. It has totally made us rethink our camping places.
Everywhere is either a landslide impacted or 8-12" in mud
No time to rest must help those affected by the floods.
[youtube]lktG-6Y6JM4[/youtube]
rebuilding the bridge which got washed away for about the 5th time the one we rebuilt on the saturday was pulled out by the loggers to build this one on the sunday
The water camp up to over the hilux on the background and was actually over the exposed clay bank behind it some 60feet high
I will do a short story later on our flood relief mission which has been running for 4 weeks later when I get time to relax.
