b@h

Have you heard it on the news?

Lawas was flooded. It was the worst in 38 years.

I almost drove into the flood water on the way to school, in the dark. I had my headlights on, so I didn't really go all the way into it, at the roundabout. I managed to brake in time and was glad that there was no car behind me because I didn't even look into the rearview mirror as I was applying the brakes.

In the semi dark, we could see that the water was up to the roundabout, on the plot where the tamu is. Some people had already set up shop for Saturday. So the stalls were then standing in 2 feet of water. I turned the car around and went looking for another exit route. The road in front of the post office was flooded as well. I thought we weren't gonna be able to get to work that morning because I couldn't think of another way out of the town.

I called Hlz to tell her that I can't find a way out and she told me not to worry about getting to school because it looks like it is a huge disaster all over town that morning. She's stuck trying to get out too because cars were lined up not being able to move because the roads were waterlogged. I called another girl whom I know was already on the way to school and asked if they can get out of town. Just as I was telling her that we might not be able to go to school that morning, I thought about the route she takes every morning and realized we can get to school that morning indeed.

I went into Banting around the badminton arena and went on to the newly paved road they blew into the hill which was completed not more than a few months before and we were on our way.

As we came closer to the junction that leads to our school, we could see that Siang-Siang was very badly flooded. It had been flooded many times before but not this bad. The houses that were built on high stilts were standing in water 7-feet deep. Obviously the all-night heavy rain that fell the night before had also fallen there and also in Trusan, a fact we found out later.

The road to school had remained free from any submersion. We got to school in a breeze like any other day. After the usual stuff I did every morning, I heard some kind of commotion outside my door. It was Hlz telling people that the water is rising at one of the lowest point in the road to school and it does not look good, and we might have to close up shop earlier than usual that day. Not to cause panic, we instructed the kids to go for recess first. The electricity was out, pobably due to the floods in town so there was no use of the PA system. We had to go from class to class. The kids already knew they were going to be let off early that morning so they went and asked me and I told them I will tell them later if that is the school's decision in the next few minutes.

We let them off at 9am that morning. And the teachers left after the kids were all gone. On the way out of the village, we came to the low point in the road. There were a few, but that was the lowest one and it was a few meters long. I was nervous, so I let a pick up truck go ahead of me so I can drive safely in its wake. Even then, I lost the front number plates in the water.

Back in town, we went and parked in front of the wisma and went walking here and there to see the full extent of the flood.

The airport was in three to five feet of water. The road going to KK was submerged, no car could pass through so the road to Mer@pok was cut off. Teachers teaching there didn't get to go to work at all that morning. The houses around the airport was in up to four feet of water. I could see some tops of cars in the water.

At the other end, the river had increased at least six times its size and it had overrun its banks, covering the whole town up to the hospital, the supermarket, the post office, the roundabout close to our place and also the tamu.

This morning we went to Sipit@ng to fill up on gas. The gas station in town won't be open for a while. We saw how bad the floods was in Mer@pok and the villages along the road. The sun was shining brightly, so the farmers were out sunning their rice. Thank God, at least they could do that. The rest of the unharvested rice were probably damaged in the flood. There was still stagnant water all over the place, but the road was not submerged anymore as it probably was the night before judging from the mud stains left behind.

In Sipit@ng, even the sea was brown with the sediments that flowed into it with all the rain water.

Back in L@w@s, there was two to three feet of mud everywhere. We stopped by at the airport for a few minutes and could see the clean up job. The guy in charge informed us that the airport will be open again tomorrow. We were planning to go to the supermarket to get a wedding present for a co-worker whose wedding would happen tomorrow. But none of these supermarkets were open, because they were busy logging the damaged goods.

The King tides starts today. I hope it doesn't rain anymore. We don't need the flood to last any longer than it should take its course.

On the more disgusting note, my thighs and hands are covered in red itchy spots. I don't think it is the kalig@te that I always get when I was little. The spots were small and they don't have water in them. I don't know what they are and what caused them. I got it on Tuesday, thought it will go away. But the spots have been bothering me till today so I went to the clinic and got myself some med. I have taken the meds now the ones on my thighs looks like many many overlapping red itchy bumps and the ones on my hands are multiplying and covering the whole of the palms of both hands. They gross me out.

Please go away. I am tired of scratching and scratching is so not sexy.