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PRIME MINISTER'S DEPARTMENT
NATIONAL DISASTER MANAGEMENT AGENCY
PRIME MINISTER'S DEPARTMENT
NATIONAL DISASTER MANAGEMENT AGENCY
Kuala Lumpur: Kejadian banjir di Karak berpunca daripada ribut petir dan hujan lebat yang berpanjangan, bermula pada malam 18 Februari hingga awal pagi kelmarin.
Ketua Pengarah Jabatan Meteorologi Malaysia (Metmalaysia), Dr Mohd Hisham Mohd Anip, berkata keadaan itu turut berlaku di beberapa daerah di Pahang, Selangor dan Perak.
“Hujan lebat ini bukan disebabkan oleh luruan monsun, tetapi oleh penumpuan angin di kawasan tengah Semenanjung pada tarikh berkenaan,” katanya kepada BH.
Beliau berkata, Metmalaysia turut menjangka luruan monsun akan memasuki rantau negara pada 21 hingga 25 Februari ini.
Amaran hujan berterusan
Katanya, keadaan itu berpotensi menyebabkan hujan berterusan di Sabah, Sarawak dan timur Semenanjung dalam tempoh berkenaan.
“Amaran hujan berterusan akan dikeluarkan sebaik output model ramalan mencapai tahap keyakinan yang tinggi,” katanya.
Kelmarin, BH melaporkan Kampung Karak Setia dan Kampung Mangin di Karak, Bentong, Pahang, dilanda banjir dengan 38 keluarga sudah berpindah ke pusat pemindahan sementara (PPS) Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan (SMK) Karak Setia.
Bagaimanapun, jumlah mangsa banjir yang berpindah ke PPS SMK Karak Setia meningkat kepada 95 orang.
RAMALAN CUACA SIGNIFIKAN
- Admin UKK
- Berita
Analisis terhadap model-model ramalan cuaca terkini menunjukkan luruan monsun dijangka memasuki rantau Negara bermula pada 22 hingga 25 Februari 2025. Keadaan ini berpotensi menyebabkan hujan berterusan di Kelantan, Terengganu serta pedalaman Perak dan Kedah dalam tempoh berkenaan.
MET Malaysia sentiasa memantau keadaan cuaca dari semasa ke semasa dan akan mengeluarkan Amaran Hujan Berterusan sebaik sahaja output model-model ramalan cuaca mencapai tahap keyakinan yang tinggi.
Orang awam adalah dinasihatkan untuk sentiasa merujuk laman web www.met.gov.my dan media sosial rasmi MET Malaysia serta memuat turun aplikasi myCuaca bagi maklumat yang terkini dan sahih.
Ketua Pengarah
Jabatan Meteorologi Malaysia (MET Malaysia)
Masa dikeluarkan: 1:00 tengah hari
Tarikh: 20 Februari 2025
KUANTAN, 20 Februari- Sultan Pahang, Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah hari ini berkenan bercemar duli menyantuni penduduk terjejas banjir di Karak, Bentong,.
Baginda turut berkenan mengurniakan sumbangan kepada 49 ketua isi rumah membabitkan 150 penduduk dari Kampung Karak Setia dan Perumahan PR1MA Karak yang terjejas akibat bencana tersebut.
Dalam titahnya, baginda mengingatkan penduduk agar menerima ujian itu dengan tabah serta menganggapnya sebagai satu rahmat. Baginda turut menasihatkan penduduk supaya sentiasa mengutamakan keselamatan dan bersabar dalam menghadapi musibah.
Baginda juga bertitah agar penduduk yang menetap berhampiran sungai mengambil inisiatif membina rumah bertiang tinggi sebagai langkah persediaan.
Pihak berkuasa berkaitan turut disarankan untuk mendalamkan sungai serta membina tebatan banjir bagi mengurangkan impak bencana pada masa hadapan.
Keberangkatan tiba baginda di Dewan Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan (SMK) Karak Setia disambut Menteri Besar Pahang, Datuk Seri Wan Rosdy Wan Ismail dan Pengerusi Jawatankuasa Hal Ehwal FELDA, Koperasi dan Usahawan Negeri Pahang, Datuk Amizar Abu Adam.
Alor Setar: Citadel Group bekerjasama dengan GoBarakah, platform e-voucher patuh syariah bagi menyalurkan bantuan kewangan kepada pelajar yang terjejas akibat banjir di Kedah.
Pengarah Citadel Group, Fred Chan berkata, pihaknya menyasarkan kutipan dana sebanyak RM50,000 untuk membantu sekurang-kurangnya 250 pelajar sekolah menengah di negeri itu.
Menurutnya, dana itu akan digunakan bagi membeli keperluan asas sekolah seperti seragam, buku dan alat tulis, sekali gus memastikan pelajar terjejas banjir dapat meneruskan pelajaran tanpa gangguan.
"Citadel Group dan GoBarakah menggunakan sistem transaksi digital dan penjejakan pintar untuk memastikan bantuan disalurkan secara telus dan berkesan.
"Platform GoBarakah membolehkan sumbangan disalurkan terus kepada penerima yang disahkan, dengan transaksi digital yang membolehkan dana digunakan secara fleksibel mengikut keperluan mereka.
"Komitmen kami adalah untuk berdiri bersama komuniti yang terkesan dengan bencana ini. Melalui penyelesaian digital inovatif, kami memastikan bantuan sampai kepada yang memerlukan dengan cepat supaya pelajar dapat meneruskan pembelajaran mereka tanpa gangguan," katanya dalam kenyataan.
Beliau berkata, GoBarakah yang dilancarkan pada November 2023 menawarkan penyelesaian inovatif dalam pengurusan bantuan sosial dengan meningkatkan ketelusan dan keberkesanan penyaluran sumbangan.
Katanya, kerjasama Citadel Group dan GoBarakah menghubungkan penderma, organisasi dan penerima manfaat dalam satu ekosistem digital yang bertanggungjawab dan mampan.
"Citadel Group kini memasuki tahun kelima operasinya dan terus komited dalam menyediakan produk kewangan berlandaskan syariah.
"Perkhidmatan kami kini merangkumi Semenanjung Malaysia dan Malaysia Timur dengan pejabat di Kuching, Sibu, dan Tawau, Sabah.
"Citadel Group bersedia untuk berkembang ke peringkat antarabangsa menjelang 2025, serta mendefinisikan semula landskap pengurusan kewangan. Untuk maklumat lanjut, sila layari: www.citadelgroup.com.my," katanya.
‘Don’t panic’ (but keep a towel handy): Earth’s options to city-killer asteroid that might hit in seven years
- Admin UKK
- Berita
PARIS, Feb 20 — There is a very small chance that an asteroid capable of taking out an entire city could strike Earth in less than eight years. But even if this asteroid is hurtling our way, humanity is now able to defend itself against such a threat, experts say.
The odds that the recently discovered asteroid will hit Earth on December 22, 2032 have now risen to 3.1 per cent, NASA said on Tuesday, the highest probability for an impact by such a large space rock in modern forecasting.
“Don’t panic,” Richard Moissl, head of the European Space Agency’s planetary defence office, told AFP.
As astronomers gather more data, the odds of a direct hit are widely expected to edge upwards before rapidly dropping down to zero.
However, even in the unlikely event that the probability does keep rising up to 100 per cent, “we are not defenceless”, Moissl emphasised.
Here are some of the ways that humanity could deflect or destroy the asteroid known as 2024 YR4.
Smash a spacecraft into it
Only one planetary defence strategy has been tried out on an actual asteroid.
In 2022, NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) deliberately smashed a spacecraft into the 160-metre-wide Dimorphos asteroid, successfully altering its orbit around a larger space rock.
An advantage of this plan is that we could hit the 2024 YR4 asteroid with multiple spacecrafts, observing how each one changed its trajectory, Bruce Betts, chief scientist for the nonprofit Planetary Society, told AFP.
The asteroid discovered in December is estimated to be 40-90 metres wide -- roughly half the size of Dimorphos.
“You have to take care not to overdo it,” Moissl warned.
If the spacecraft partially destroyed the asteroid, it could send “bits flying off” that still head towards Earth, he said.
If this kind of mishap changed the eventual impact site on Earth — for example, “from Paris to Moscow” — that would likely cause major problems back home, Betts added.
Tractor, ion beams, paint
A separate idea called a gravity tractor involves a large spacecraft flying up near the asteroid and — without touching it — using its gravitational pull to tug it away from Earth.
Another non-contact plan would put a spacecraft near the asteroid armed with thrusters that would exert a “constant stream of ions” to shove the asteroid off course, Moissl said.
Scientists have also considered spray painting one side of the asteroid white, increasing its reflectiveness so it slowly changes trajectory.
These subtler strategies would require reaching the asteroid sooner than for some more severe options.
The nuclear option
Or we could also just blow it up with a nuclear bomb.
Rather than drilling a nuclear weapon deep into an asteroid — as depicted in the 1998 sci-fi action movie “Armageddon” — this would likely involving detonating a bomb nearby.
Last year, US researchers testing out this theory on a marble-sized mock asteroid in the lab found that the x-rays from a nuclear blast would vaporise its surface and send it shooting off in the opposite direction.
Even setting aside the ethical, political and legal issues of sending nukes into space, this is considered more of a last-ditch plan for kilometres-wide asteroids like the one that killed off the dinosaurs.
And again, there is a risk that a nuclear explosion could still send unpredictable chunks hurtling towards Earth.
Lasers
Along less dangerous but similar lines, another idea is to shoot laser beams from a spacecraft to vaporise the side of an asteroid, pushing it away.
Lab experiments suggest this plan is viable, but it is not one of the “top techniques” being looked at, Betts said.
If all else fails
If necessary, deflecting this asteroid is “doable, but it depends on the speed at which we move as a planet”, Moissl said.
While experts and space agencies will make their recommendations, ultimately the decision on how to tackle the asteroid will be made by world leaders.
If all else fails, we will have a good idea of the strike zone of the asteroid — which is not a “planet killer” and at most could threaten a city, Moissl said.
This means that preparing for impact, potentially including evacuation if the area is populated, will be the last line of defence.
“Seven and a half years is a long time to prepare,” Moissl said, re-emphasising that there is a roughly 97 per cent chance the asteroid will miss Earth. — AFP