This picture was taken by the Star, showing rescuers leading some of the victims out of the disaster area on foot.
Sad news reverberated through Wangsa Maju at about 4am today when tragedy struck at Bukit Antarabangsa, taking a total of four lives, injuring tens, and shattering the dreams and hopes of thousands who were evacuated from the scene of the latest landslide to hit the area. Houses were brought down by tonnes of earth, which buried four and damaging property valued in the millions.
Some of the residents were still trapped at the other side of the tragedy area when the roads and electricity supply were cut off. This latest tragedy came in the wake of another landslide which claimed the lives of two children in Ulu Yam a week earlier.
Ironically, the authorities did not seem to have the sensibility of installing a monitoring system on such precarious hills developments realising well that heavy rains the past three weeks could have contributed to earth movement which could have led to this massive landslide. Apparently, the local authorities in Selangor have not learnt from the Highland Towers tragedy, which also happened on a Saturday, Dec 11, some 15 years ago.
For those who have forgotten, the Highland Towers comprised three blocks of 12-storey apartments. one of the blocks collapsed when 10 continuous days of rainfall led to a landslide after the retaining wall at the Tower's car park failed.
Meanwhile, there are two hillside development that sits smack in the heart of Wangsa Maju - Desa Putra condo which were built couple of years ago, and several others in the vicinity. Has City Hall initiated hillside monitoring in view of bad weather being forecast for the next few days? Some time ago, there was a landslide Section 10. I think the MP should visit these hillslide developments near Carrefour and the vicinity now.
4 comments:
good for bringing up the areas in WM that are areas to closely look at. All PBTs should take immediate actions to prevent such incidents in the near future
I was very small when Highland Towers tragedy. Went there to see the collapsed structure but was too small to understand what happened.
Was thinking whether the projects around Section 4 hillside is safe or not, nowadays more developers like to build close to the hillside, which can be risky like what we've seen here.
Bkt Antarabangsa land should be -re-examined whether it's still safe to continue live or not.
If not, sooner or later this will repeat again somewhere in another spot, or the same spot too.
No one knows but the guy above the clouds.
I am an American writing from California but I lived on Jalan Wangsa 5 for more than 5 years in the 1990's. I have not been able to find a good picture online of the exact area where the landslide occurred but I do know that there used to be a row of old shop houses along Jalan Wangsa 9 where the slide occurred. Those homes always seemed to be in danger of collapse and I can't help but wonder if they helped contribute to this tragedy. I always felt that Bukit Antarabangsa had become too developed and, after Highland Towers, used to worry whenever we had days of rain, as was common in December. I agree with CLF. It's time that the authorities take a hard look at whether anyone should be living up on that hill.
Dear American-writing-from-California..
What collapsed is in Bukit Antarabangsa, some 5km from Wangsa Maju. Heck, Wangsa Maju is hard as rock, and it won't collapse any moment soon.
>> CLF, Highland Towers is a tragedy. But the bigger tragedy is when housebuyers continue to buy houses on hillslopes so that they have a commanding view of their neighbourhood. If you worry about buying a Proton because of your safety, one is quite perplexed when you decide to purchase a house on a hill without considering if one day, climatic changes would cause it to collapse. Indeed developes should be blamed as much as the authorities. But how about smart buying? Why pay a bomb for something you can anticipate a collapse?
Post a Comment