“Save her first.” A flood-rescue volunteer recounts what it was like in Sri Muda.

2021 hasn’t been such a good year for Malaysia. Just to recap: We’ve been in-and-out of the MCO for most of the year. And just as things were slowly starting to return to normal, we were hit by a new variant and ended the year with one of the worst floods we’ve seen in years. Sigh. 

But despite all the obstacles we’ve faced over the year, we also found new hope in our very own community. We saw hometown heroes like ‘Abang Viva‘ and Rina Harun go above and beyond to help those who were stuck in the flood, along with everyday Malaysians who decided that they wanted to head out there and make a difference.

One of these people was Jiunn Jye, who participated in the flood-rescue efforts in Sri Muda and wrote about it. We spoke to him to find out more about what his experience there was like, and this is what he told us…

(Note: Jiunn’s full account of his experiences were originally written in his own posts that can be found here.)

Jiunn was inspired to help after seeing a video of the flood on Facebook.

Jiunn was in the middle of fixing his flood gate when he saw a video that one of his friends shared about the rising flood waters in Sri Muda. From there, he noticed that many people were asking for help from people with boats, which struck him… he had his very own kayak.

Wanting to do something good, he reached out to his friends, ADUN members, and even his local MP to see how he could start helping out in Sri Muda. And after a few hours of searching (and communicating), he managed to get several 4×4 vehicles to help with transportation, a few kayaks, a motorboat, and recruited 11 of his neighbors to assist in the flood-rescue efforts.

When he arrived in Sri Muda, one of the first things he noticed was that the houses were submerged in about 10 feet of flood water, with no electricity nor water supply. 

According to him, many of the flood victims had not eaten since the night before. There were also volunteers who were also helping to supply food and transfer those who might need to be on dry land, but were working under the uncertainty of whether the flood would continue to rise.

So, Jiunn grabbed his kayak, oars, and went out in search of people who needed his help. And from this experience, he noticed a few things about the people that he was able to help…

The residents of Sri Muda were constantly looking out for each other.

Unlike some of us who choose to avoid contact with our neighbors at all costs, the residents of Sri Muda were the epitome of what you’d find in a Moral/Sivik textbook. Even though they were in pretty dire straits themselves, they were still looking out for each other regardless.

Jiunn was out looking for people to help, when a lady stopped him and asked him to help a 94-year old woman who was living alone. But when he arrived at her house, she did not respond, to which the man who lived next door asked him for some bread to give to her saying that she was reluctant to leave.

“After I gave him the bread and some extras, he reassured me by saying that I shouldn’t worry, as the aunty was being taken of by the people in the area. That’s generally the spirit among the neighbors there.” – Jiunn, in his post.

He also saw the same spirit of community through the many other people that he helped during the flood. For example, one of the most interesting and heartwarming stories was when he met this Malay family, who asked for supplies and to transport one of their family members who had just gotten surgery for her cancer to a nearby school, as she was due to remove her stitches the next day. Jiunn said that it was at that moment that he felt worried about transporting her, due to the fact that if she were to fall into the water, it might infect her wound.

But while in the process of transporting the family to shore, one of the older ladies accidentally fell into the water while trying to board the kayak which caused Jiunn, the family, and a few passing Indian volunteers to quickly help to pull her out of the water.

“It felt like such a ‘muhibbah‘ moment, with all 3 races working together to help each other in need.” – Jiunn

Right as he was about to transport one of the sons of the family, the boy’s father shouted out to his son to get Jiunn some food at the school, after hearing that he had not yet eaten. After transferring the boy, it was only then he learned that the “one family” he had met were actually 2 families, with the older lady and the lady with cancer being one family. They had all gotten together to help each other out.

But that wasn’t all that Jiunn noticed amongst the residents of Sri Muda…

Even after losing so much, the people he helped wanted to repay him.

You’d think that when people are left with near nothing, the last thing they’d be willing to do is to give back. But in Jiunn’s experience, that wasn’t the case.

Jiunn came across an Indian family comprising of 8 members, one of which was pregnant. They were safe and dry, but running low on food and water supply, so Jiunn took around 4 trips to-and-fro in his kayak to bring them all to shore. Once he was done, he was stopped by the uncle, who wanted to give him RM50 for his help.

“How could I take the money when they’ve lost so much? After much debate, the uncle agreed to finally give me one of his old pants to wear. And when we arrived back on land, their son also tried to repay me but I refused. Even when you have almost nothing, there’s still a way you can help.” – Jiunn.

But that wasn’t the only person who Jiunn helped that wanted to repay him for his help. He also came across a Chinese lady who asked for his help in purchasing some bread after being trapped in her house.

After getting her the food she needed, she requested for him to pass high-blood pressure medicine to the aunty that lived opposite her, and asked how she could repay him for his kindness. He turned down the offer, saying that she had already repaid the good deed by giving the medicine to her neighbor. 

Despite needing help themselves, they put the wellbeing of others first.

Self-sacrifice is truly a rare thing. When caught in a situation like this, most people might think that it’s every person for themselves. However, for the residents of Sri Muda, this couldn’t have been further from the truth.

Jiunn was called by a Thai lady who was able to break herself out from her house by destroying the grills on her window. However, after coming out of her house, the woman noticed that the Chinese lady who was trapped in her house (the one who wanted to repay his kindness) and told him to leave her there first, while she went to go and free the trapped woman. Unfortunately though, the window grill could not be broken, and the Chinese lady asked Jiunn to save the Thai lady first.

Jiunn also noted that many of the families were willing to take less food despite not having enough for each member of the household, so that there would be enough food to go around to the other houses.

In the face of a bad situation, the compassion of Malaysians shone through.

Jiunn summed up his experiences in Sri Muda as a truly eye-opening one. Despite the negativity that’s been seen a whole lot online, none of that mattered in the flood areas as people were too focused on getting the flood victims the help that they needed.

However, he did also mention that there was so much more that could have been done better in terms of coordinating the rescue and donations.

“On day 2 of the operation, I had so much food left with me that I ended up spending most of my effort looking for people who needed food. Since almost everyone I met had enough food, except for foreign workers. Meanwhile, there was more of a need for candles and torches to last through the night.” – Jiunn, to CILISOS.

Taking away so much from this experience, Jiunn and a few of his friends who were also volunteers came up with a checklist of things to prepare in case of another flooding, which can be found here. But since the post is in Mandarin, we’ll post an English translation below for your own reference:

Taking precautions can really help you out during floods, so make sure you have an emergency backpack that is packed in case you have to make a quick escape. Here’s what you should have in the backpack:

• Flashlight/Candles/Lighter
• Dried food/Canned food/Water
• Cash & important documents in a waterproof bag
• Clothes
• Charger/Power Bank
• Medication
• Toiletries

Also, here’s some other tips for when you’re stuck in a flood:

• If you’re stuck above ground floor, buckets, ropes and a knife can come in handy (rescuers can pass you food/water via the bucket)
• If the iron grills on your upper floor windows can’t be opened, you’ll have to prepare equipment to saw it open just in case.
• Conserve the battery in your mobile phone. Floods can often affect data connectivity, and in the worst cases, you can still use SMS to ask for help.