GEORGETOWN: Business owners are staring at losses up to RM1 million each from their premises being inundated by floodwaters over the weekend.
Some have even declared a “total loss” and will have to start anew.
Checks in Bukit Mertajam today revealed workers busy cleaning up premises with piles of boxes containing damaged items gathered on the roadside of the shoplots along Jalan Padang Lalang.
Municipal lorries were seen making their rounds to remove all the boxes from the road.
When the New Straits Times approached 54-year-old Teoh Eng Leong, he said he estimated that he lost close to RM1 million when his warehouse was flooded.
He said he has been supplying a variety of household items and clothes for 20 years in the same area but this was the first time that his warehouse was struck by such a disaster.
“Only last Thursday, about 100 sacks of items had arrived at the warehouse. We thought of packaging them up on Monday but all of them were damaged on Sunday. I incurred losses in a blink of an eye,” said Teoh, as he kept a watchful eye on his workers clearing out the wet boxes from the warehouse.
He said he was in Indonesia when the flood struck and flew home after receiving a call from his colleague who told him that his warehouse was badly affected.
Not far from Teoh’s warehouse, 65-year-old vegetable wholesaler Law Ong Soon lamented his losses of about RM50,000, which included damage to his forklift and car, when the flood inundated two of his shops.
“I really need time to recover from this loss. All of my vegetables are gone... none had been saved from the flood. Who is going to pay for the losses?”
Boxes containing rotting vegetables, most of which were also covered in mud, were piled up in front and behind the shops.
“The (municipal council) lorry has already made two rounds to clear the vegetables, but there are still plenty of boxes to be cleared away,” said Law.
He said on Sunday, the water had risen up to the waist.
“There was nothing I could do other than watch the vegetables carried away by the surge. It broke my heart.”
Stall operators at a foodcourt along Jalan Perak, here, were also badly affected, their goods and electrical appliances destroyed or badly damaged.
Checks showed that the aftermath of the flood left the foodcourt in chaos. Tables and chairs were turned upside down, fridges were broken and the floor was muddy.
One of the operators, Fauzi Nasir, 50, said he suffered RM60,000 in losses.
“Everything is broken. The fridge, especially, is expensive and I don’t know where to get the money to buy a new one. We are not under any association and we have nowhere to go to ask for funds to recover the losses.”
Fauzi said his stall, like those of his fellow stall operators, would be closed for at least a week to allow time for repairs and clean-up work.