The 5am downpour inundated parts of Bayan Lepas, Bayan Baru and Bukit Jambul, with vehicles unable to travel across several roads.

Penang Gerakan chief Oh Tong Keong said this morning’s flash floods were a testament to the failure of the state’s flood mitigation plans which were announced in 2016.

“The Penang government announced grand flood mitigation plans for the southern portion of the island” he said in a statement.

“Many can’t help but wonder what has happened to those plans.”

According to Oh, chief minister Chow Kon Yeow had previously announced three flood mitigation projects at Teluk Kumbar, Bayan Lepas, Jalan Tun Dr Awang to Relau and Bayan Baru worth close to RM7.5 million when he was the local government committee chairman in 2016.

Oh said another RM2.2 million was also set aside for Sungai Bayan Lepas.

He said if the projects had taken off, it was money not well spent as taxpayers’ money went to mitigation projects that did not work.

Oh also called for an urgent audit to be carried out to see if the money was actually spent on the mitigation or otherwise.

Earlier, Bernama reported that Kampung Masjid, Kampung Manggis, Kampung Perlis, Kampung Binjai and Kampung Seronok were all affected by the floods.

The flood waters receded at about 10.15am today, with no evacuations reported.

The areas are flood prone as they are located in the lower lying parts along Sungai Bayan Lepas.