ALOR GAJAH: The heavy downpour and flash flood did not dampen the spirits of teachers and students from Madrasah Tahfiz Al-Quran Ainur Syukriah here as they continued reciting the Quran at the relief centre in Kampung Panchor Mosque here, yesterday.
Quran teacher Md Zaki said flood which occurred at 10am on Tuesday forced its students to be temporarily sheltered at the relief centre before they were allowed to return to their hostel at 9.30am after floodwater receded today.
"Despite the predicament, we are glad to see that our students are optimistic and keen to learn.
"They were not frightened by the flood and are able to continue going about their day normally.
"Yesterday, we noted that the condition of the mosque (relief centre) was conducive, so we went ahead with the teaching and learning process as there were also Quran books available.
"This is because we feel that religious studies should not be neglected, although we were unable to provide a complete teaching lesson as we did not carry the Kitab (religious texts) with us," he said when met at the school today.
The Kampung Panchor mosque was opened at 4.30pm yesterday to temporarily shelter 72 Tahfiz students and eight teachers from the Madrasah Tahfiz Al-Quran Ainur Syukriah.
They were later transferred to the Balairaya Kampung Panchor.
Earlier the weather improved and floodwaters receded, allowing the students and teachers to return back to their school.
The New Straits Times visited the school and noted that activities in the school went on as normal.
Earlier in the morning, the school’s tahfiz students, aged between 11 and 15, joined in the gotong-royong activity to clean-up the school after the flood.
"We are glad that the students are coping well with the flood, although some of them suffered from skin disease. Earlier this morning, a nurse came to treat these students to prevent the possible spread of any sort of disease during flood," he said.
Recounting the ordeal, Md Zaki said flood occurred at about 8am yesterday with waters rising up to knee-level, before the Civil Defence Department officers came with orders to evacuate.
"We were able to rescue about 280 Quran and Kitab books from being destroyed by the floodwaters," he said.
The school's headmaster Muhammad Sufian Ahmad Shukri acknowledged that flood was a challenge to the school, but they have learnt to accept the disaster optimistically.
"After a hard day of gotong-royong, the students are taking a short nap before they continue with their studies at 3pm," he said.
He added that this was the second time the school was flooded where the previous flooding occurred last month.
Continuous heavy rain since 5pm on Tuesday evening had caused several low-lying areas to be inundated, forcing three evacuation centres to be opened to temporarily accommodate victims in the Alor Gajah district.
As of 6pm today, the weather has improved and two evacuation centres were closed.
The two are Balairaya Kampung Tanjung Rimau Luar, which was closed at 2.15pm today and Balairaya Kg Panchor was closed at 10.15am today.
The only evacuation centre left open is the Sek Keb Belimbing Dalam which is currently sheltering 47 victims from eight families.