KULIM: Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail visited flood victims in Kampung Baru Tambahan, Sungai Kob, here today, including the family of a father and daughter who became the first two to drown since the district was inundated last week.
The deputy prime minister spent some 10 minutes with Che Yong Ton and her 81-year-old mother-in-law Hasnah Musa.
Che Yong, whose husband and 14-year-old daughter were the ones who had drowned, looked weak and dejected, but still managed to smile as Dr Wan Azizah spoke some words of encouragement.
The PKR president then presented RM10,000 in aid to the bereaved family.
Dr Wan Azizah said she was saddened that the flood had claimed the lives of two people.
“(Che Yong) now has a phobia of going back to her own home. We are working out an allocation to help the victims’ family... we are proposing that a new home be built for them.
“Kedah Menteri Besar Datuk Seri mukhriz Mahathir will also look at things holistically and come up with a long term solution to this flooding problem... before this, there had never been floods here,” she told reporters after her visit.
On Tuesday, 57-year-old Johari Bakar and his youngest child, Nor Suri Danila, drowned after being washed away by floodwaters. Two other family members managed to save themselves in the midnight incident.
Nor Suri Danila’s body was found eight hours later, trapped in the roots of a tree growing by the riverbank 3km from their house. Two hours later, Johari’s body was found some 1.5km away from his daughter’s body.