Floods: Noble effort ends in tragedy in Penampang

Rescue workers carrying the body into a police truck.

KOTA KINABALU: A married couple’s noble intention to send food to people stranded by the floods ended in tragedy when the wife drowned in Penampang near here.

In the incident, the couple decided to walk through floodwaters to deliver food to Donggongon town at about 10pm on Sunday (June 30).

Penampang police chief Supt Sammy Newton said the couple – Monica Ting Siew Kwong, 37, and Hii Ding Wei, 39 – had to leave their car which got stuck in the water.

“The couple fell into a drain but the husband managed to save himself while the wife was washed away by the strong current,” he said in a statement on Monday (July 1).

It was learned the husband had tried frantically to hold on to his spouse but she slipped and was swept away.

He immediately notified the Civil Defence Force and police personnel who were conducting search and rescue (SAR) work in the area.

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Supt Sammy said a SAR operation was carried out immediately but stopped at 11pm because of rising floodwaters and strong current, and resumed at 6am on Monday.

Ting's body was found at 8am caught on tree branches at Kampung Hungab, some 500m from where she was last seen by her husband.

Supt Sammy said the victim's body was sent to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Kota Kinabalu for a post-mortem.

The flood on Sunday, which hit many parts of Penampang as well as Putatan and the capital here, was described as one of the worst in recent times.

There were multiple reports of vehicles unable to pass through several roads, especially in Penampang, as floodwater continued to rise following heavy rain that started at about noon.

The Fire and Rescue Department said it had received over 200 distress calls.

Social media was also filled with videos of houses being flooded, people walking in waist- and even neck-high water, and cars almost submerged.