BATANG KALI: It reads like an anthology of horror, the tales of survivors and witnesses of the landslide which buried a campsite at Father’s Organic Farm, Batang Kali, here early yesterday.
“I heard a loud noise like the sound of thunder before seeing the campsite at Zone A buried under piles of earth,” said Teh Lynn Xuan, 22.
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She added that it happened at about 2am as she was preparing to go to sleep in a tent that she shared with her mother at Zone B Hill Top.
She and about 20 relatives and friends from Melaka, Selangor and Singapore had been at the campsite over the past three days for the school holidays.
“The tent I was in with my mother collapsed and we were lucky to get out in time and go to higher ground. Everything happened so quickly,” she said when met by reporters at the Ulu Yam Baru police station near here yesterday.
Teh’s younger brother is missing while another brother was injured and is in hospital.
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It was also at about 2am as Singapore permanent resident Tee Yeow King was settling down to sleep in his tent when he heard a loud rumbling sound.
Safe and sound: Some of the victims arriving at the Ulu Yam Baru police station. — Photo from Selangor Fire and Rescue Department’s Facebook page
He knew something was terribly wrong and all he could do was rouse his wife and grab his children and place them under his body.
Speaking to The Straits Times from the Ulu Yam Baru police station, Tee, 37, a sales manager, said: “The sound got louder and it was nothing like I have heard before. It sounded like trees were being ripped apart and rocks crumbling.
“The sound seemed to be headed our way, but it was too late to run out of our tent in the dark. It all happened very quickly. We were very lucky.”
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They prayed while taking cover in their tent and after a few minutes, it went quiet.
Tee, his wife and two children, a son, aged seven, and a three-year-old daughter, were miraculously unhurt.
Using torches, they helped one family whose child was partially buried in the mud.
“We became scared again when we heard a second loud sound,” he recalled.
Bone-tired: Survivors resting at the Ulu Yam Baru police station.
Another victim, Leong Jim Meng, 57, told Bernama prior to the incident, he had felt the area at the campsite shaking and heard a loud rumbling sound.
He said he and his family did not expect this to happen as the weather over the past few days had not been that bad.
“We were asleep when it happened at 2am. It was too dark to see clearly what was going on.
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“My family and I were trapped because our tent was buried, but we managed to get out and go to a nearby parking area before calling the authorities,” he said.
“Another victim who only wanted to be known as Lee, 28, said it was drizzling at that time and he only realised there was a landslide after hearing a loud noise.
“I saw the campsite at Zone A buried in the landslide, rushed to the scene and managed to pull out two people, a woman and her child,” he said.
Meanwhile, Knug Thang, a Myanmar national who stayed in a house affected by the landslide, said that he was woken up by “earth and water” in the early hours.
“We woke up because of a loud noise. Then the house was flooded with earth and water,” the 31-year-old foreign worker said when met at the Ulu Yam Baru police station.
He and his 12 friends rushed out of the house and Knug said one of them injured his foot while evacuating.
The Tees’ tent at Father’s Organic Farm was one of two which were untouched by the landslide.
Three other tents located at the highest level of the camping ground were flattened.
There are three levels at the campsite where visitors are allowed to pitch tents, The Straits Times reported.
By 3am, some of the survivors, including the Tees, were evacuated to a more secure area nearby.
There, paramedics examined them to see who needed urgent medical care.
At around 6.30am, they were taken to Ulu Yam Baru police station.
Police personnel gave them food and shoes to those who lost them in the landslide.
The children were also given toys to keep them occupied, said Tee.
A police officer said they required the help of the Tees to lodge a police report before they were allowed to leave the station, which is about 15km from Father’s Organic Farm.
Thanking the Malaysian authorities and rescuers, Tee added: “They responded really fast and tried their best to help and comfort us.”
