Tense moment for family of 15 as water rises at campsite

JERANTUT - A gathering at a campsite at Ulu Cheka turned into a nightmare for a family of 15 when water started to rise at the area, earlier this morning.

In the 1am incident, the tents that were set up at the site collapsed and were swept away by the river current.

All victims were safe as they managed to get to safety.

A victim, Soyart Hasan, 36, from Bandar Pusat Jengka, Maran said he along with his siblings and their family members comprising 15 people including eight children were there at the campsite for a family gathering for the weekend during the school holidays.

He said the plan was for all his nine siblings and other family members to gather there, but only four of his siblings were there at the time of the incident as the others have yet to reach the site.

“Initially, the weather was good, it started to rain at around 7pm and continued until 10pm.

“After 10pm, the rain started to subside, but we noticed that the river water level was increasing.

“We woke up at the time and moved all of our items around 1am when the river waters had spilled over to the campsite,” he said when contacted.

One of the victim's tent that had water flowing inside and another tent that had been swept away by the current.

Soyart said only personal belongings were saved while the tents were not dismantled as they thought the water would subside.

“It turned out that our guess was wrong when the waters continued to rise believed to be from the upstream and swept away our tents.

“Fortunately, we realised earlier that the waters started rising and we were careful throughout the night. If the waters had risen while we were asleep, I don’t know what would happen to us,” he said.

He said despite disruptions in their camping activities, he was thankful that everyone was safe.

“Nature is unpredictable. This may have been caused by heavy rains further up leading to a spill into the area.

“I managed to share the video of the incident on Facebook before it went viral. Afterwards I came to know about the water surge and flash floods that occurred in Maran.

“Many suspected that this happened to us due to the incident there (Maran),” he said.

Soyart said despite facing such situation, the family continued with the activities despite being forced to go to another campsite as the waters have yet to subside.

“The activities have been planned for a while and we were still in a ‘camping mood’, so we will just continue maybe until Monday,” he said.