On any normal day just after dawn, the Fire and Rescue Department personnel here would be sitting down to a hearty breakfast.

However, officers at the Rantau Panjang station were up earlier than usual yesterday for a daunting task ahead – cleaning the schools affected by the recent floods.

With floodwaters having receded in most parts of Rantau Panjang and the nearby town of Tumpat, schools have been ordered to reopen for the 2017 session.

Rantau Panjang Fire and Rescue Department assistant superintendent Mohd Adni Ibrahim led a team of 15 officers to clean up the schools, starting with SK Rantau Panjang 1, SK Rantau Panjang 2 and SK Gual Tinggi.

“We use two trucks containing 20,000 litres of water to clean up the three schools so that they would be ready to reopen,” said Mohd Adni, adding that they were assisted by the army, civil defence and villagers.

SK Rantau Panjang 1 is built on low ground, and according to the teachers, is almost always the first place to be hit by floods when Sg Golok overflows.

It has become a ritual at the end of every school year for all assets on the ground floor to be moved upstairs to ensure they are not damaged by floodwaters.

Over in SK Rantau Panjang 2 and SK Gual Tinggi, which doubled as flood relief shelters for the past week, teachers and volunteers have already cleaned up as much as they could.

Firemen hosed down the canteen, assembly area, the corridors and the drains beside the multi-purpose halls and classrooms.

Work at all three schools went on for the full day until late in the evening.

Bernama, meanwhile, reported that the number of evacuees in Kelantan has dropped from 4,695 to 4,196 people as at 1pm yesterday.

According to the Infobanjir app, 12 evacuation centres remained open to house residents from Tumpat and Pasir Mas.

The state e-banjir website put the water level at Sg Golok in Rantau Panjang at 8.77m, which is below the 9m danger mark.

The reading for Sg Kelantan at Jambatan Guillemard, Tanah Merah, also dropped to 12.48m, almost 4m below the 16m danger level.

Source:
courtesy of THE STAR

by The Star Online

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