A WOMAN clutched her month-old baby to her chest as the flood waters rose, trapping her and her family of four in her home in Malacca.

Another mother desperately put her newborn in a wash basin that she held on to as she braved the flood in Segamat, Johor.



They were the lucky ones.

At least three have drowned in Segamat in the massive floods in many states of Peninsula Malaysia.

As of press time, 48,000 have been evacuated from Johor alone, with at least 5,000 more fleeing from Malacca and Negeri Sembilan, even as authorities prepare for similar floods in Kelantan and Terengganu.

These numbers are merely those that are currently known. Two entire town in Johor - Segamat and Kota Tinggi - have been completely cut off, marooning about 73,000 and 40,000 people respectively.



The only way in, for now, is via helicopter.

As for the Malaccan woman with the month-old baby, her efforts to save her baby were rewarded when her family of four was rescued by boat about four hours after they were trapped.

She told the China Press: 'I wanted to keep my baby warm so I held her tightly.

'I didn't dare go anywhere else because the waters are so high.'

She added that the family - her younger sister and two daughters - could do nothing but wait outside the house to be rescued.

'The water in our village was up to our shoulders - everything is submerged,' she said.



It is a similar story in Segamat in the north-west of Johor, about 155km away from Johor Baru.

It was one of the towns most severely affected by the floods.

Before the entire town was cut off, one Segamat resident told The China Press a woman had put her baby in a wash basin because she was concerned that her baby would be swept away if she held him.

At one point, the waters were as high as 1.5m.

Said the resident: 'She didn't know what to do with her baby and the current was pretty strong.

'She went to the discount shop across the street, got a plastic basin and put the baby in it.'

Both mother and baby were later rescued.


TRAFFIC WOES


The Malaysian floods also caused massive traffic woes for commuters.

Mr Hong, a Singaporean businessman who is based in Desa Jaya, a town 25km away from JB, told The New Paper that he spent about three hours yesterday driving from JB to Desa Jaya.

On a normal day, it takes him less than an hour.

Said Mr Hong, who travels back to Singapore once a fortnight: 'There were no more flood waters in the town but stalled cars and diverted traffic caused the jams.

'It was worse on Tuesday evening. I have Malaysian friends who left their office in JB at 6pm that evening and arrived home at Desa Jaya at 1am.'

Mr Hong said the view opposite Desa Jaya was not too different from what he saw on television of the flooded nurseries near MacRitchie Reservoir in Singapore.

Miss Huey Lee, a Malaysian who made a family trip to Kluang on Tuesday, said she arrived in Kluang at 9am and, in an hour, flood waters had covered the streets up to knee level.

Said Miss Lee: 'Some vehicles got trapped but we were fortunate that it didn't happen to ours.'

While she did not find the flood traumatic because it happened quite often, she admitted driving under such conditions was tough because of the chaotic traffic.


HEAVY RAINFALL



Between Monday and Tuesday, Johor got the amount of rainfall it would normally get over 53 days.

According to a Star report, Johor chief minister Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman said the annual rainfall was usually about 240cm but between those two days, Johor received 35cm.

This caused the riverbanks to burst and many roads were closed to traffic. All train services have been suspended. As of yesterday, the situation has not improved.

'All the 73 rooms in this hotel have been taken up and the guests are unable to leave,' Mr Mohd Radzi Ismail, a receptionist at Sri Pelangi Hotel in Segamat, Johor, told The New Paper yesterday.

The New Paper telephoned eight hotels in Segamat yesterday evening but Sri Pelangi Hotel was the only one that answered the call.

Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak was quoted by Bernama as saying: 'We are also monitoring the situation in other states... the current weather is difficult to predict as we had anticipated states in the East Coast to be hit by floods but it turns out Johor is getting the brunt.'

Meanwhile, Inspector Zakir Sidek of the Johor police told The New Paper this morning that while Segamat is still cut off from the outside world, they hope to regain communication with Kota Tinggi residents soon.

'The situation is still dire, but all hands are on board to help. What is important now is for people not to panic, and we will try our best to come get you,' he said.