The trail of death and destruction by tropical storm Greg in the west coast of Sabah yesterday is not only Sabah’s but the nation’s worst natural disaster.
About 100 people had been killed, over another 100 reported missing, more than 3,000 families made homeless, while the damage to property is in the range of millions of ringgit.
Although this is the first time that a tropical storm had hit Sabah directly - raising the question whether Sabah could continue to be known as “Land Below the Wind” - a more pertinent question is why the Metereological Services had not anticipated the seriousness of Greg and why the relevant authorites had not given sufficient warning to the people so as to minimise damage and reduce the loss of lives.
The Sabah Chief Minister has now advised the people to follow weather forecast announcements over the radio as strong winds and rains are expected to persist - but why weren’t the people given sufficient warning in advance about the severity of the direct impact of Greg so that they could take all possible precautionary measures - as is done in other countries in similar situations?
Furthermore, why weren’t all the relief and emergency organisations and measures put in place before the full impact of Greg, which is probably the strongest evidence that the authorities concerned had themselves been caught offguard by the tropical storm!
In an era of satellite photos which could forecast weather trends and changes, this is a serious omission which tantamounts to negligence.
The Meteorological Services Department director-general Dr. Lim Joo Tick said yesterday that tropical storm Greg had started as a tropical depression over Pulau Layang Layang in the South China Sea, moving to the northwest coast of Sabah and Sarawak. Greg had moved in an easterly direction at at about 10kph since Monday and peaked to 72 kph before slamming into Sabah’s west coast.
Dr.Lim said Greg , which cause widespread heavy rain, strong winds and choppy sea conditions, had been detected by his department on Monday, and at noon on the same day, the alert was relayed to its branches in Sabah and Sarawak.
This means that the authorities concerned had at least 60 hours to prepare the people for the ravages of tropical storm Greg, not only to warn the people to take precautionary measures but for all relief and emergency operations to be put in place, to save lives and minimise destruction of the storm.
It is clear that these 60 hours had not been fully utilised to minimise damage and reduce loss of lives before Greg lashed at the west coast of Sabah on Thursday morning - or the Special Malaysian Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team (SMART) would not just be on a “stand-by alert” in Kuala Lumpur assessing whether its services were needed at the height of the storm. If the 60 hours’ notice had been fully utilised, SMART should have been deployed at the various vulnerable points in Sabah to help in search and rescue operations at the height of the storm. The kindest thing that could be said about SMART is that it is not smart at all.
(27/12/96)