Flood trauma affecting students

At threatening level: The overflowing monsoon drain seen from Darren’s house in Bandar Botanic, Klang.

PETALING JAYA: Students living in areas devastated by the floods are having their study plans disrupted as their learning materials were destroyed, while they also deal with other facets of the natural disaster.

Laila Najwa Shahrim, 17, said now was not the time to think about her Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) preparations as her family need to clean their muddy home in Nilai, Negri Sembilan.

“Even though studying is a priority for me, I can’t let my family clean the house themselves while I’m studying upstairs – it doesn’t feel right.

“So, I’m just going to hope that I have enough time to prepare for SPM,” she said.

Laila Najwa is fortunate because her home still has electricity and phone connection.

Some of her modules have been damaged, but a majority of her family’s belongings are still intact.

A student, who wants to be known as Amy, lost all her books when floodwaters entered her home on Saturday night.

The 17-year-old, who will be sitting for SPM in March, does not know how she will be able to concentrate on studying seeing the damage to her home in Taman Sri Muda, Selangor.

“Right now, my mind is just on helping my family get our house and lives back in order,” she said, adding that it was difficult to sleep at night due to the stress.

Her family was only rescued by volunteers late Sunday night, and transferred to the Taman Sri Muda bridge where they made their way to a relative’s house in Subang Jaya.

A teen, who was affected by the floods and did not wished to be named, said the havoc wreaked on his family home had affected his university enrolment plans.

“I need time to mentally recover before I can focus on studying again,” he said.

Taman Sri Muda is one of the worst-hit areas by the weekend floods, with the ground floor of many houses inundated.

He said the “dangerously high water levels” short-circuited the double-storey home’s electricity, weakened telephone signals, damaged property, and forced the entire family to stay in a single room until they were rescued by volunteers.He added that it was thanks to pockets of cellular signal that they managed to contact someone to rescue them.

The family of five was finally evacuated at 5pm on Monday and reached a friend’s house in Selayang at 11pm.

“I would like to thank the volunteers and the uniformed bodies that helped out,” he said, adding that they also fed his sick grandmother and parents, and brought the family pet dog to safety.

A-Level student Darren Daniel Yap Chin Ong, 17, has been unable to sleep, study or focus properly after witnessing water enter his home in Bandar Botanic, Klang.

He said water started rising in the monsoon drain behind his house around midnight on Saturday, and the power supply got cut at 3am before returning at 9am.

“Soon, water started to flow out of the bathroom and into the kitchen,” he said, adding that overall, the water level was quite low, thus making evacuation unnecessary.

He and his mother frantically tried to scoop water in pails and throw it out, but soon gave up, while his father was stuck in the flood on a highway.

“I started to cry as I thought the house was going to be badly damaged. I could not sleep that night due to the constant nightmares I had about the flood,” he said.