Sinkhole forces another family to
evacuate from their house
The Star 1/4/2005
KAMPAR: A second family has been told to leave their home at Kampung
Cabang Dua in Kuala Dipang, near here, where a house collapsed into six
sinkholes on Tuesday.
Maimon Mat Noor, 50, and her 14-year-old daughter Nurul Hidaya Sulaiman
were told to move after cracks measuring 1.5cm appeared on their kitchen
wall yesterday morning.
The kitchen, an extension of their single-storey house situated 20m from
Telekom Malaysia technician Abdul Razak Shamsuddin’s house which
collapsed, is also beginning to sink.
“My daughter and I have been sleeping over at a neighbour’s house for the
past two nights for safety reasons.
“When I accompanied my daughter back to our house to take her bath at
5.30am, we discovered the cracks and (found the) floor in our kitchen
uneven,” said Maimon.
At 7am, mother and daughter scrambled to remove their belongings with the
help of Rela workers when told by Mineral and Geoscience Department
officials that their house was no longer safe to live in.
“I don’t know what is going to happen to us. I don’t want to move away
because this is my home. I’ve been staying here for the past 11 years,”
she said.
Meanwhile, Chenderiang state assemblyman Datuk Chang Kon You has made
arrangements for the family to stay at the Public Works Department
quarters here while their house was being monitored.
“The Mineral and Geoscience Department is monitoring the entire
geographical area where there are about 20 houses.
“We hope to get a report quickly as understanding the area’s soil
structure will enable us to plan and execute our next action effectively,”
Chang said.
According to former tin-mine worker Ramly Md Lahi, 66, whom Maimon and her
daughter had been putting up with, the land on which their houses were
built used to be a river.
Relating a similar story, Abdul Razak said the ground in the area was
always wet and there was a swamp nearby.
As of yesterday, Abdul Razak’s double-storey house has collapsed further
into the sinkholes while his elder brother Mohd Zainal Anuar, 51, who
lives about 20m away, has discovered cracks on the stairs and pillars of
his house.
“I’ll wait and see what happens before deciding whether to move or not,”
said Mohd Zainal Anuar, a prison warden. |
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