SUNGAI BULOH - Dalam kegelapan awal pagi, seorang ayah nekad meredah hujan lebat dan air banjir separas pinggang demi menyelamatkan bayi perempuannya berusia empat bulan susulan banjir kilat di Kampung Kubu Gajah di sini pada Rabu.

Berkongsi detik cemas, Muhammad Yusuf Kamarudin, 31, berkata dia tidak menyangka air naik begitu cepat selepas hujan lebat bemula sejak 3 pagi, hingga tidak sempat menyelamatkan harta benda penting di rumahnya termasuk barangan elektrik.

"Jadi, saya dukung anak redah hujan lebat dan banjir separas pinggang ke pondok berdekatan sebelum dibawa ke jalan utama dengan sampan oleh jiran yang kebetulan lalu di situ. Mujur saya sempat keluar sebelum air naik lebih tinggi,” katanya kepada Bernama ketika ditemui semasa membersihkan rumahnya pada Khamis.

Muhammad Yusuf dan keluarga merupakan 27 keluarga yang berlindung di pusat pemindahan sementara (PPS) Dewan MBSA Seri Pagi Paras Jaya sebelum pusat pemindahan berkenaan ditutup lewat petang tadi.

Sementara itu, Saniah Kosnan, 60, pemilik Butik Pengantin Mempelai Bestari berkata dia kerugian hampir RM10,000 selepas butiknya yang terletak di kampung tersebut turut dinaiki air.

"Semalam saya sedar air mula naik dan masuk ke dalam rumah 5 pagi. Saya hanya sempat selamatkan beberapa barangan di rumah namun tidak sempat untuk ke butik saya yang terletak berhampiran dengan rumah kerana air naik terlalu cepat.

"Mujur suami saya mempunyai sampan, jadi kami sekeluarga dapat ke jalan utama untuk selamatkan diri,” katanya.

Saniah berkata antara barangan di butiknya yang rosak termasuk baju pengantin, bunga hiasan, permaidani, kerusi pelamin serta barangan elektrik seperti lampu hiasan.

Pada Rabu, kira-kira 100 keluarga di Kampung Kubu Gajah terjejas banjir susulan hujan lebat berterusan sejak awal pagi dan antara kawasan lain yang terkesan Sungai Buloh, Petaling Jaya dan Subang Jaya. - Bernama

ATHENS, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced on Thursday a 45-day extension to the deadline for clearing overgrown vegetation on private properties, as part of the country's efforts to better prepare for what is expected to be another challenging wildfire season.

Mitsotakis underscored the need for public cooperation in clearing plots of land, calling it a critical line of defense that had proven effective in protecting homes and aiding firefighting efforts last year, when the country experienced devastating fires.

BINTULU (April 25): Dewan Sri Kemunting, which was damaged in the January floods, has been fully restored and is now operational.

This was made possible through repair works carried out under a corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative led by the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) and six partnering construction companies.

The six companies involved in this CSR programme were Paling Construction Sdn Bhd, Hyup Soon Industries Sdn Bhd, Hing Teck Glass Aluminium Sdn Bhd, SCORE EPCC Sdn Bhd, Dumas Holdings Sdn Bhd, and China Communication Construction Company (M) Sdn Bhd.

The restoration included repainting, door and fence replacements, and other essential repairs.

The hall was officially handed back to the community during a ceremony Wednesday officiated by Jepak assemblyman Iskandar Turkee.

In his speech, Iskandar emphasised the vital role of community halls as hubs for rural unity and engagement.

“This programme not only rebuilds physical structures but also strengthens the spirit of togetherness and cooperation among residents,” he said.

Meanwhile, CIDB chairman Yusuf Abdul Wahab, who is Tanjong Manis MP, expressed appreciation to the companies for their contributions.

He also announced that the Build Brigade Programme would be expanded to benefit more areas in need.

Present at the event were CIDB Sarawak director Rosmen Ag Hassan, Bintulu district officer Awang Mohammed Nizam Awang Ali Bohan, and CIDB Bintulu manager Kamarul Azman A Razak.

The magnitude 6.2 tremor on Wednesday sent citizens dashing from shaking homes, reviving memories of a historic quake that devastated the country’s southeast two years ago – and raising anxieties about the city’s lack of preparedness.

It hit a city that has recently seen mass protests over the arrest of its mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu. Scheduled demonstrations still occur twice weekly, with more spontaneous protests cropping up regularly.

There were no deaths from Wednesday’s tremor, the biggest in years in Istanbul, which sits just north of a fault line crossing the Marmara Sea. Some 5 million of the city’s 16 million residents live in risky homes, data showed in 2023.

While the government said preparing the city for a bigger earthquake was urgent, the opposition party – which runs the municipality and has been frustrated by what it calls inaction by the central government – said its urban transformation plan must finally be adopted.

Imamoglu and some of the city’s other disaster-response officials are in prison pending trial on charges brought last month that were broadly criticised as politicised and anti-democratic.

From his cell outside the city, Imamoglu – who is President Tayyip Erdogan’s main political rival and leads him in some polls – said on social media it was his “greatest sadness” not to be able to serve residents at this time.

Dozens of people were hurt leaping from homes on Wednesday, which was the nationwide Children’s Day holiday in Turkey, while concrete chunks from some buildings crashed to the ground. Seven buildings had minor damage as a result, authorities said.

“The immediate shelter needs of 101,000 citizens have been effectively and comprehensively met,” interior minister Ali Yerlikaya said of people who overnighted in mosques, schools and dormitories. Others slept in tents or vehicles.

Murat Kurum, the urbanisation minister, said about a third of the 1.5 million buildings deemed at risk “require urgent transformation – and we have no time to lose.”

The municipal government sought to work with Erdogan’s government on infrastructure transformation to prepare for earthquakes, he said. “With a sense of national and international mobilisation, our Istanbul earthquake council proposal must be put into action.”

February 2023’s 7.8-magnitude earthquake was the deadliest and most destructive in Turkey’s modern history, killing more than 55,000 people in the south and in neighbouring Syria, and leaving hundreds of thousands still displaced.

The latest tremor also revived memories of a 1999 earthquake that killed 17,000 near Istanbul, Europe’s largest city which also spans across the Bosphorus Strait to Asia.