Bertam Valley at Cameron Highlands had been hit by floods overnight and some people were missing. Manjit dropped all her weekend plans and checked with her sources about the incident.
When she received confirmation on the “really bad” situation up in the highlands, she could only groan.
“I suffer from car sickness and the winding route to the highlands makes me really unwell.
“For me, the concern was not about covering the incident, but going up there,” said The Star’s assistant news editor.
Still, she quickly packed her things early in the morning and rushed up to the highlands with photographer Saiful Bahri.
“Saiful had to make a few stops along the way so I could throw up.
“When we arrived at about noon, we could see the whole area was muddy, and a river that looked like teh tarik was flowing near the houses,” she added.
The incident on Oct 23, 2013, saw four people killed, with nearly 100 houses destroyed or under water and over 100 vehicles badly damaged.
According to the authorities, water from the Sultan Abu Bakar Dam, which was under the jurisdiction of Tenaga Nasional Bhd, was released thrice – at midnight, 1am and 2.45am.
Continuous and torrential rain forced the emergency water releases to prevent a breach, but this resulted in a surge to the Bertam River.
There were claims from residents that they did not hear the alarm siren for the water release, hence the front page carried the headline “We Didn’t Hear The Dam Siren” the following day.
Manjit said the situation on the ground was chaotic from the start.
“I knew it would be difficult getting reliable information due to the extent of the incident, which was compounded by poor telecommunication reception.
“We had to travel repeatedly between the disaster site and the Sultanah Hajjah Kalsom Hospital to gather updates, interview sources and follow developments,” she said.
“When the residents said that they never heard the siren, that became the headline.
“After filing the stories and sorting out the photographs, we only managed get back to Ipoh at around 3am,” she added.
News editor Neville Gerarde Spykerman, then a rookie who had joined about two months prior, said he was summoned into the afternoon editorial meeting and was instructed to assist the Perak bureau.
“Then, production editor Dorairaj Nadason (Raj) said he wanted the ‘schematics’ of the dam so that graphics could be produced for the papers the next day,” he said.
“I left Menara Star at about 5pm and reached there at about 7pm. On the way up from Tapah, I could see the road was wet and muddy even though it had stopped raining,” he added.
Spykerman said he managed to track down Manjit at a small food court, where she was busy filing her stories,
“I could see she was overwhelmed, so I went to the makeshift search and rescue operations centre to get the latest information on the dead and missing for a story,” he said, adding that he completed his task at about 10.30pm.
“News editor Foo Yee Ping told me I could check into a hotel and get a change of clothes and claims the expenses later, if needed, but I had barely RM20 in my wallet.
“I ended up sleeping in my car before starting the drive back down to Kuala Lumpur early next day.
“My wife was pregnant with our daughter and I wanted to get home as soon as possible,” he added.
Although the news was reported widely, little has happened to improve conditions at Cameron Highlands.
Just a year after the incident, in November 2024, three people were killed following another mud flood and landslide in three areas.
A 13-year-old boy was swept away by floodwaters at Kuala Terla while two foreigners were buried by a landslide at Ringlet and Bertam Valley.
Earlier this year in April, videos of muddy water surging on a road and pushing back cars at Habu Heights also went viral.
In May, the Seremban High Court ordered TNB to pay RM4.7mil to 100 victims from the 2013 incident.
The court found TNB negligent for releasing water from the dam without proper monitoring, which caused the flood. The suit was jointly filed by the Bertam Valley residents in 2016.
