The angry residents speak their mind

A huge crowd of residents of my condo turned up for last night's meeting with the condo management to discuss the flooding of the condo lower ground basement parking. The condo management and developer representatives were there as well, in an attempt to defend themselves from the onslaught of angry residents. However, there was no PA system, so we couldn't hear much of anything the management reps had to say with such a huge crowd in a big room, especially since they were so soft-spoken. It was only halfway through that someone was smart enough to get a megaphone from the  Local politician Gwo Burne Loh was there as well as a middleman, and quite frankly I think we got better answers to our questions from him then we did from the condo management.

As expected, there was no promise of compensation from the management, and no explanation why the management or the guards did not try to alert us to the floods, except for the excuse that the water rose too fast, within 15-20 minutes. However, this timeframe was disputed by one of the other residents, who says the water was rising two hours before 11pm on Wednesday night, which was when the water was highest. They did not promise to have a proper flood warning system in place, so one of the residents just told everyone that next time this happens, just pull the fire alarm (which is what I wanted to say). The only promise made is that they are reinforcing the wall between the condo and the small river next to the condo so the water cannot come through, but of course this takes time as they have to submit construction plans to the government, etc. So when someone asked when the wall would be done, they could not give an answer either.

The crowd was of course not happy at all, although it never got too unruly. At most, one guy came in front to ask a question and ended up yelling some nonsense, but that got under control quickly. And the rest of the people at most would shout in support to anyone who raised a good question to management.

The only piece of potentially good news I heard was from Gwo Burne Loh, who said that he had seen a document stating that the condo is actually insured against floods INCLUDING damaged cars, for s sum of RM171 million! If that is true, that would be more tha  enough to cover the repairs to all the cars...however I would demand compensation for the entire worth of my car, simply because my car which is only ONE year old is now going to difficult to sell off and the parts will wear out quickly, so I will have to buy a new car anyway.

I'm hoping for good news from them. For now, 6 of the residents have formed a group to push the management into keeping to their promise to reinforce the wall, in addition to many other things they have to do like have a flood warning system in place, train the guards on how to respond in similar situations in the future.

In the meantime, my car and my father's car is this still in the workshop being assessed for damages and price is still not known. Hopefully there will be good news.

The angry residents speak their mind

Flood at USJ One Avenue Condo parking basement

My condo car basement got flooded aroun 11pm Wednesday night after a heavy downpour starting early evening. All cars parked on the lower ground floor basement parking were waist high in water, including my Myvi which is only about a year old, and my father's Toyota Vios, along with 250 other cars.

Click on the pic below to see the news report on SwitchUp.tv about this.

Amazingly, there were hardly any efforts made by the security guards or condo management to alert residents about the rising waters, claiming that the waters came up too fast in 15- 20 minutes. Apparently sounding the fire alarm would gave risked a stampede of people running down the stairs. In which case I don't know what the fire alarm is for as in the event of a real fire, would they also be afraid to ring the fire alarm because of fear of stampede? As it is, my family and most residents had no idea what had happened until the next morning. I only found out when my mum went downstairs to go to work and she woke me from my slumber with a phone call. By that time all the water had subsided, and I found my car like this.

The whole interior was flooded with dirty mucky water, and I am glad that I'm not one of those people who keeps everything but the kitchen sink in their cars, coz' I didn't lose anything else really important in there, just my car vacuum cleaner, which I haven't tested yet so perhaps by some miracle it will still be working. Of course the greatest miracle of all would be if my car electronics and engine can still work, but highly unlikely especially since my mum had the brilliant idea of trying to start my car before I got down there, which would have sealed it's death.

The source of the dirty mucky water was overflow from the small river next to condo which usually is pretty small, as seen below from my condo window.

As you might see, there is a concrete wall between the river and our condo. Which is useless for flood management as whoever designed it had the brilliant idea of putting slits in the walls.




My car and my father's car having been at the workshop since then and until now both are only being cleaned up and the workshop people cannot estimate how much the damage will be yet because they are dismantling all the parts and waiting for it to dry out. Both cars will be there at least a week. I'm expecting the cost will come up to at least RM10,000 for my car although I'm hoping the fact that Myvis are common will mean parts are cheaper. Insurance does not cover for natural disasters, so there goes at least two months salary, probably. :( And my insurance company also ticked me off when I just asked for a tow truck guy and their tow trucker called me back wanting to charge me RM80 to tow my car to USJ 1 perodua service center, which is like FIVE minutes away, so I said no. Plus, it was only later when I called the insurance company again when I confirmed that towing is actually covered by the insurance company, by which time my dad had gotten some other tow truck to take it to our normal service centre for RM70 (some of these truck wanted to charge RM150 after they saw all the ruined cars and the potential business! I can only call them heartless scum and that's being nice of me). And my wonderful insurance company said they wouldn't cover for that towing since it wasn't THEIR tow truck guy. It was only after I complained about their tow truck guy wanting to charge me that they agreed that I can claim back the amount, even then I have to waste my time writing a cover letter explaining why I am claiming for this towing. Sigh, the world is full of money sucking worms.

Tonight the residents are having a meeting with local politican Gwo Burne Loh, and maybe Hannah Yeah, to try and wring some compensation from our condo management, although it's unlikely they will pay a dime to us. In response, I expect all affected residents will cease paying our monthly maintenance fees of RM500, which I help to pay for. If I stop paying for, let's say, the next 3 years, that money can be used cover back the cost of car repair. That's not even counting the price of buying a new car coz' I know my car now will not last me very long even after repairs.

I expect tonight there will be a lot of shouting going on and table thumping, and maybe protest banners demanding blood. I will be there with my camera/phone to catch all the fun.

Flood at USJ One Avenue Condo parking basement