House, wedding preparations damaged in storm

IPOH - A house belonging to a family along with the wedding preparations in the house were damaged in a storm that hit the Bercham area, here, yesterday.

In the incident which started at 3.50pm, the roof of the house belonging to Nor Azura Othman, 52, from Bandar Baru Putra, was blown away by the wind.

The preparations made for her daughter’s wedding next Sunday including the gifts, ‘bunga telur’, wedding dress were damaged as the roof of the bride’s room was leaking after it was damaged by the storm.

Nor Azura, when met said the incident happened in a split second and they were unable to do anything to save the affected items.

"For the past two or three days, it has been raining and windy in the evenings, but we didn't expect the impact to be so severe this time.

"Last night (Saturday), when the strong wind came, simultaneously, the front roof, awning, carport and room roof were all blown away.

"The front yard and room were also flooded due to heavy rain," she said.

The mother of 11 said despite being saddened by the incident, her family was determined to ensure that the wedding ceremony could proceed as scheduled.

She said for now, repair works are being carried out on the roof to prevent further damages to the household items and equipment in case of heavy rain.

"My daughter is still shocked about the incident and she has not had the strength to enter her room to see the damages to the wedding items.

“We will try to focus on repairing the roof first and when it's done, we will slowly rearrange the wedding equipment and preparations," she said.

In the incident, nearly 30 houses in three housing areas, namely Bandar Baru Putra, Taman Putra Indah and Taman Indah suffered damages due to the storm, but no fatalities or injuries were reported.

Mohd Saat Daud, 48, from Taman Putra Indah said he could only shout ‘Allahuakbar’ before asking his wife and four children to gather in the middle of the house upon realising the heavy rain and strong wind.

The coach at the Ulu Kinta General Operations Force (PGA) Training Centre also managed to turn off the house's electricity supply for fear of any untoward incident.

"After 15 minutes, the situation was calmed; I looked outside the house and saw that the awning had been detached and the roof of the front room had also been blown away by the wind.

“During the search, we found that it (roof) had been thrown about 250 metres away in a field next to the housing lane," he said.

Another victim, Nur Asyikin Mohamed Zulkifli, 50, said this was the third and worst time that residents in the area had experienced such a situation in 12 years.

"Previously, there was only minor damages, but this time the losses involved RM5,000 to RM10,000, as the damaged roof and awning need to be replaced," she said.