An aerial survey by Bernama with the Malaysian Fire and Rescue Department (JBPM) Air Unit found that the 10,000ha township located at the heart of Pahang seemed to have disappeared due to the massive floods that struck the town on Sunday.

Even the sunny weather over the last two days has not helped and there is no sign of the floodwaters receding.

Mentakab resident Sarimah Derami, 57, who lost all her belongings to flooding in January this year when her house in Bangau Tanjung was submerged, said that she had been fearful since then whenever heavy rainfall hit the town.

“Every time it rains heavily for more than two hours, the water will rise, how long do we have to go through all this? Everything in the house is not even a year old yet,” she lamented.

Sarimah said that in January, the area was flooded after five days of heavy rain compared to the two days of continuous rainfall this time.

“I hope better measures will be implemented by the government to tackle the flood problem in Mentakab,” she said today.

As of 10am today, a total of 34,390 people were housed at 245 temporary flood relief centres statewide.

Meanwhile, Saharudin Othman, 44, who refused to wallow in grief turned the disaster into an opportunity to generate income for his family.

The entrepreneur decided to fish using a net in Sungai Semantan and sell his catch to the residents in the surrounding area.

“My housing area in Kampung Lompat, Mentakab is also flooded but I cannot just sit around. I need to feed my family,” he added.

He could earn up to RM400 a day by selling his catch including ‘ikan patin’ (silver catfish).

Saharudin also expressed his gratitude for the assistance extended to the residents by rescue personnel and NGOs as well as for the contributions they received from all Malaysians.