LIAP #12: KELANTAN FLOOD

 25.5.2021

Flooded Sungai Kelantan at Tambatan D'Raja in Kota Bharu

The biggest flood ever recorded in the last 50 years happened in December 2014. The flood displaced more than 202,000 people of Kelantan from their homes, and the damage caused was estimated to be about RM2.9 billion. That was BIG!

Before this event, there were two major events that are most remembered by Kelantanese people. The 1927 is known as Bah Merah, and the 1967 is known as Bah Kuning. The names, I gathered, were derived from the colours of flood water. Personally, I experienced Bah Kuning when I was 15 years old.

On my way home from SDAR Tanjung Malim, Perak, in December 1967, the Mail Train stopped at Palekbang. I took a boat to Kota Bharu and took a private taxi from KB to Cabang Empat Binjai. That was the furthest they could go. My father and my uncle accompanied me and we walked under two ot three feet of water to my father's friend's house at Banggu. We took turns carrying my bag. Then at 10pm, he sent us by sampan to my kampung at Pondok Beris. We arrived dead tired. When people talk about the flood, I know what it means from my tacit knowledge.        

Bradley Steps in Kuala Krai  after the flood 

A flood is an unwanted and uninvited event that comes and goes. Its Return Period varies from 10,50 and 100 years. Now, engineers are talking about 200 years.  I am not here to discuss hydrology, but most of the government projects back then were designed for a 50-year return period. And Flood 2014 was estimated to be in the probable bad of 50 to 100 years. Hence, the impacts are as mentioned above.

    

Flood is not a project. When it comes, managing the flood and its impacts is a project. Every five-year plan, the government has allocated some funds for flood mitigation, but we still have floods off and on. I am not here to discuss flood hydraulics and hydrology, but suffice it to say that we should have done more considering the negative impacts on national and private assets, not to mention the safety of the people.    

In Malaysia, we have an SOP for Flood Management. DID will inform the government and the people of its rainfall and flood forecast. Once the Flood Operation Room is opened and activated, the project begins. All relevant government resources will be re-directed, including the army and the police, to undertake moving people from the affected areas, taking care of their temporary accommodation, and feeding them.    

The Kelantan Flood in December 2014 was very special for me. I got ready to monitor the buildup of the rainfall and the flood daily online from my home. I read every report and get feedback from friends in Kelantan as well as from my friends involved in NGOs helping the affected people. 

From what I read, heard and watched, and visited, I concluded that the Kelantan Flood in 2014 is the biggest flood in the last 50 years of Kelantan. In terms of flood management, it was NOT a disaster management but more of a Management Disaster. In short summary, the main factors are incompetent leadership and management and lack of resources to be made available for rescue operations. The people suffered badly due to incompetence at the state and federal levels. You can read the details in the Flood Post Mortem Study by USM.

Flood management is a disaster management.  The Rules of Engagement are different from the normal course of government operation and procedure. Our civil servants must learn a lot from the Police and the Army.

In one similar case in Johor, the Minister said the state was fully prepared to weather the incoming flood, but later failed miserably. Talk BIG, small action!

We engineers can forecast the timing and the expected size of flood water, and there is no way we can predict the damaging impacts of the flood water on properties and the lives of the people. We must learn the lesson from every flood and get fully prepared with a factor of 2. Never take a chance with the loss of lives!

Keyword to take home: BE PREPARED

The Biggest Flood in 50 Years

The most devastating flood in Kelantan’s recent history occurred in December 2014. It was the largest in the last half-century, displacing over 202,000 people and causing an estimated RM2.9 billion in damages. It was, without exaggeration, colossal.

Before this catastrophic event, two floods stood out in the collective memory of the Kelantanese people. The first was the Bah Merah in 1927, and the second, the Bah Kuning in 1967. These names, I’ve learned, were derived from the colours of the floodwaters—red and yellow respectively—perhaps due to the soil content and flow patterns at the time.

I have a personal memory of Bah Kuning. I was 15 years old when it happened.

In December 1967, I was returning home from Sekolah Dato’ Abdul Razak (SDAR) in Tanjung Malim. The Mail Train could only make it as far as Palekbang due to floodwaters. From there, I boarded a boat to Kota Bharu, then a private taxi to Cabang Empat Binjai—the furthest it could go. My father and uncle met me, and together we waded through two to three feet of water to reach a family friend’s house in Banggu. We took turns carrying my school bag. At 10 p.m., our host sent us off by sampan to our village in Pondok Beris. We arrived exhausted and soaked, but safely home. That journey left an imprint. When people talk about floods, I don’t just imagine them—I remember them, physically and emotionally.

I also remember seeing the Bradley Steps in Kuala Krai after the 2014 flood. They stood as a silent marker of destruction.

Floods are uninvited guests. They come unannounced—or, at best, with short notice—and leave a trail of destruction. The technical term for their frequency is “Return Period,” which typically ranges from 10 to 100 years. Lately, engineers have begun talking about 200-year floods, a troubling sign of changing climate patterns. I won’t delve deep into hydrology here, but it’s worth noting that many government flood mitigation projects were designed for only a 50-year return period. The 2014 flood likely exceeded that—some say it approached the 100-year mark. The consequences speak for themselves.

It’s important to make a distinction: a flood is not a project, but managing its impacts is. Flood management is an urgent, high-stakes, complex operation. In every Five-Year Plan, the government allocates budgets for flood mitigation, yet we still experience recurring floods. This tells us something is not working as it should.

Malaysia does have a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for flood response. The Department of Irrigation and Drainage (DID) monitors rainfall and provides forecasts. Once the Flood Operation Room is activated, it triggers a coordinated emergency response involving multiple government agencies—including the military and police—to evacuate victims, provide temporary shelters, and ensure food and medical support.

The 2014 Kelantan flood was particularly significant to me. I monitored the situation daily from home, reading reports and gathering updates from friends on the ground—both locals and NGO volunteers. What I witnessed, read, and heard convinced me that this was the worst flood in Kelantan in over 50 years.

But the real tragedy? It wasn’t just a natural disaster. It was a management disaster.

Despite the warnings and historical precedent, the response was marked by poor leadership, lack of preparedness, and inadequate resources. People suffered unnecessarily due to incompetence at both state and federal levels. This conclusion is backed by the Flood Post Mortem Study conducted by Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), which lays out the critical failures in detail.

Flood management is not routine governance. It’s disaster management—a discipline with its own rules of engagement. It demands urgency, flexibility, and decisive action. Civil servants can learn a great deal from how the police and army conduct operations under pressure. Their training in crisis response is exactly what disaster scenarios require.

I recall a similar situation in Johor. A minister declared confidently that the state was “fully prepared” to face an incoming flood. When the waters came, the reality was starkly different. Big talk, small action.

Engineers like us can forecast flood timing and potential water levels with reasonable accuracy. But we can’t always predict the extent of destruction—especially to human lives and private property. That’s why we must overprepare. We must factor in the unexpected. We must take no chances when lives are at stake.

The keyword to remember: BE PREPARED.