Shocking Tragedy

This is the house that were buried by tonnes of earth

Roads were uprooted

This house was swept 200m across the road

The other side of the landslide

Total chaos at Bukit Antarabangsa

Alternative road after 3 weeks

Road that cuts through someone's house

The bridge that was set up by the army

Coming out from the landslide area

I have never got a chance to blog about this tragedy that happened near my house .. It was the Bukit Antarabangsa landslide that happened in the wee hours on 6th December 2008 ..

I still remembered that morning at around 3 a.m. I was still sound asleep when suddenly the electricity went off .. I thought it was the normal short cutoff of electricity that we always experienced .. Then after a while, I heard sirens and helicopter flying by my house .. I started to get curious as to why there is sirens and helicopters flying by in the middle of the night .. But I couldn't bother much as I was too sleepy .. So I went back to bed ..

Then, at around 7 a.m. a friend of mine, Abang Azriq called me .. I was shocked why suddenly he called me so early .. I though he must have been to sleepy that he accidentally dialed my number .. But I still answered his call .. Here's how the conversation goes ..

Abang Azriq: Elly, u tidor lagi ke?!
Elly: Yaa .. Kenapa? Sekarang kan baru kul 7. Mestila tidur, kalau x buatpe
Abang Azriq: U tau tak dekat rumah u ada landslide?!
Elly: *Straight I'm awake, blinking my eyes* Ye ke?? Mana u tau??
Abang Azriq: My fren tinggal dekat sana bagi tau. Sekarang pn ada kat tv.
Elly: Ye ke?? *Still in disbelief* Okay okay, biar I keluar gi check then I call u balik k?
Abang Azriq: Ok. Apa2 call I k. Take care.

Straight I jumped out from my bed and clean myself .. My dad woke up to the noise I made .. I told him what happened and he too was in disbelief .. We both thought that it might just be a minor landslide as it is very common in my area .. I walked down, no sign of landslide .. I walked further down and to my disbelief .. I saw a huge pile of earth burying a house .. All that is left of the house is just the front portion of it .. Then the very next thing I saw caught me frozen .. The only road leading in and out of that area was uprooted and caved in .. Meaning we are trapped on the other side and there is no way out .. I was stoned for 15 minutes thinking is this really happening ..

All I was worried is was there anyone in that house that was buried by tonnes of earth? No one really knew what happened .. As time goes by, more and more people from nearby housing area starts to come out and curious of what is going on .. Honestly, it was a total chaos as we didn't know what was happening and there is no way out ..

Went back home to inform my parents .. The authorities informed us that they had made a walkway through the jungles leading out to the other side .. So we took what we need and crawl our way out through the jungles .. We went to my parents' friend's house ..

The landslide was all over the news .. All my close friends called to check if I was alright .. Later that day, we went back to get all our needed belongings as we could not stay there as there is no road leading to our house ..

We stayed at my grand uncle's house for 2 weeks .. It was not until 3 weeks later that we are able to go back to our house as the authorities had built a temporary road leading to our house ..

After almost 1 month after the tragedy, 5 people were confirmed dead, 14 houses destroyed ..

Till now, this tragedy still lingers in everyone's mind .. May those people who died R.I.P .. and to those who lost their love ones .. Be strong!