[731] Of the great flood of Pasir Kumpal

I spent almost a week last week at Pasir Kumpal, a huge river bank by the Dungun River in Terengganu. If you’ve been following my blog, you’ll know that I was there on a conservation work. Like I said earlier, it’s a gazetted area essential to the survival of an endangered terrapin species, Batagur baska.

While there, all, including me, had to patrol the bank and locate and record terrapins’ landing and nests. There were a few other responsibilities that needed to be carried out but there are not worth mentioning. You could say that I had proper expectation of things to do. That was until the unexpected happened.

Pasir Kumpal has an unpredictable weather pattern. I’m not sure whether if it’s due to micro-climate or that’s just how the weather works in Terengganu but within a day, it could rain several times with varying magnitude, interspaced with bright sunny day. It could be charmingly clear for a few hours and then heavy rainfall all the sudden the minute you started to blink. The wind is also exceptionally strong given that it’s more than ten miles – 16 km – away the South China Sea:

I think, Pasir Kumpal is within the red circle. This is my approximation in a Malaysian Public Works Department-produced map (JKR; Jabatan Kerja Raya):

For the JKR’s map, I’m not sure of the license but since it’s a work of a government, it should be a public domain. But just to be safe, I’ll try fair use.

If you’re interested, I’ve linked the location at Google Map. Google rocks! And yeah, that reminds me, Malaysia needs a system just like Mapquest. Currently, the best useful Malaysia map for civilian purpose available online is at JKR. That’s simply insufficient.

Which reminds me, I need to SMS Samy Vellu. LOL! Sorry for that lame joke but Samy Vellu brought this upon himself. He simply committed hilariously bad political maneuver. But at least, in the end, he opened up a “24-Hour Public Complaints Bureau“, which is good. Aight. That’s a digression. Back to our little story.

As you may have known, there is a big flood (tag) in Terengganu currently. Not as huge as the one hit the whole northern region of the Malay Peninsula last December but it’s big nonetheless. When the flood first happened, I was by the Dungun River, witnessing first hand how the water level rose drastically in less than a day.

By February 10, there were about four terrapin nests at Pasir Kumpal. On the same day, for the first time, it rained heavily for a prolonged period. The water level was noticeably higher than usual. By evening time, with the help of the moon gravitational pull, it rose even higher. Full moon was a few days away.

Around midnight, two turtle nests were succumbing to the river. So, we were actually forced to save the nests. One nest was terribly close to the water line. In order to retrieve the eggs and bring it to safety, we had to dig the nest. The act of retrieving the eggs was hard work and became impossible as the water level rose further. As foolish as it may sound, we actually built a sand wall around the nest as a small dam to prevent water from interfering us from retrieving the eggs. Regardless, this particular nest had already been inundated with water. In the end, out of – if I recall correctly – 10 eggs, 3 were recovered, 4 damaged and the rest were lost to the river. If you were here, you could actually feel disappointment in the air. I felt helpless even before we built the dam.

We had better luck with the second nest and recovered all safely. As for the two remaining nests, we managed to relocate one while another went under water probably around six in the morning.

I was scheduled to patrol the sand bank at 3 AM with one of two professors there, Dr. Kuchling. Heh, overslept but thankfully, the good professor woke me up at 3.30 AM. Heh, he overslept too. About him, I find his background rather, er, interesting. He was born in Austria but is an Australian citizen. So, he’s an Austrian Australian. The word play is just uncanny.

Anyway, during my round, a quarter of the huge sand bank was under water. By 6 AM, as reported, “there was no more beach to patrol”. By 9 AM, when I woke up, I could already see the water from where I slept. Earlier, I had to go down the bank to see the water.

Since it was a tough night, another Professor, Prof. Chan, a ranger and I decided to go out to town to get some real breakfast for the rest of the party. Little did we know at that time that the bridge that connects Pasir Kumpal with civilization had been submerged under water. Trapped, Marooned. Fucked. Choose your favorite word. So, no real breakfast for us.

We turned back but the all the rangers ventured out regardless. I don’t know how they got out. They swam I suppose.

Despite the fact that Pasir Kumpal had become Kumpal island, we didn’t think it could get any worse than this. Reason is, the local said that it would be unlikely for the river to flood our campsite. They said a typical bad flood would only reach the vegetation’s edge. Some of those with vehicle weren’t willing to bet on it. Hence, they moved their vehicles up to higher ground. Since it was dirt road and it rained hard the day before, a four-wheel-drive and a rope were great blessings.
By 3 PM, water was about 20 meter away from the hut. And there was a downpour again. At 5 PM, water just kept on creeping up. Edge of the vegetation, eh? Yeah, whatever.

For proof, this is a patch of green about midway from water to vegetation’s edge on the first or second day:

This is on the 11th, around 3 or 4 PM, shot from my “bed”:

Members of the party were already talking about emergency plan. It wasn’t much a plan. Even if it had worked, I doubt we would be safe.

Later, near six, the rangers came back and more importantly, they brought with them roti canai! Oh, yeah. They came in by a boat. Also, at six, I needed to take less than 10 steps from the place that I slept to get to the river. It was that bad.

So, we packed, ate our lunch-cum-tea with roti canai and were soon evacuated all the way to Kuala Terengganu, nearly 100 km up north.

If the party had spent another day at Pasir Kumpal, I don’t think I’d be blogging right now. According to Pelf, the campsite had gone submerged the day after.

I wonder what Noah would do in our situation. Meh.

About the rainfall that contributed to the flood, some locals said that this flood is coming a bit late. Such downpour should be done in January. And it seems that this weird weather pattern is also hitting the Philippines and caused a massive landslide yesterday. I want to suspect climate change but the Northeast Monsoon that starts in November will only end around March. So, I won’t and can’t point at climate change just yet.

p/s – Blogger had a bit of problem and I lost a few recent comments. So, if you found your comment is lost, feel free to repost it. =)