EXCERPT FROM DEAN YANG’S ‘ESCAPE TO THE FIFTH DIMENSION” – CHAPTER 25 (NOTE: ONE OF THE CHAPTERS IN THE BOOK THAT CAME TRUE TO A LARGE EXTENT)

Danny reported for duty early the next morning. Finally the rains had stopped in the early morning hours while it continued to drizzle in other places on the island. When he arrived at the Office, his new Boss Mr. Leong, was already there, although Danny was ten minutes early. “Ah, you must be our new driver?” asked Mr Leong. “Good morning Boss,” replied Danny, happy he was early rather than late on his first day at work. Good impressions are important on a new job. Danny looked at the older man and noticed this Mr Leong was shorter than him but weighed much more, in fact he was rather round with a huge belly along with a rough voice. “OK here is the list of Promoters and their addresses, so you pick them up and then you bring them to KOMTAR where we have a stall at the Doom. Then after their work, you transport them back, OK?” and Mr Leong passed to Danny the printed list of names and addresses. “And here are the keys to the van.” “OK, Boss.” Danny pocketed the keys and walked over to the van parked outside. He had to fetch eight girls and be at KOMTAR by ten o’clock. He sat at the driver’s seat and put on his sunglasses but decided to take them off as it was very cloudy and besides he needed to study the list to plan his route. Having worked out his route, he started the van and looked at the fuel gauge, which showed the tank was only half full. Or half empty as some would say. He decided to get the fuel tank filled up first at the first petrol station he sees. Danny looked at his watch to keep an eye on the time and by now he had fetched six of the girl promoters and two more to go. He seemed to have plenty of time still. The girls were very young, most were not over twenty- three and they chatted among themselves. All were well dressed and had their makeup on and looked pretty. No wonder, they were very successful in promoting the cigarettes. As Danny drove to Mt Erskine road, it had started to rain heavily again. To make matters worse, the van’s windscreen wipers were hopeless and ineffective, making visibility even worse in the pouring rain. Danny wondered if he should have tested the wipers before driving. Traffic too was bad as everyone was slowing down. Some stupid drivers would put on their hazard lights and this irked Danny very much. It would have helped if only the sidelights were on. Danny was heading towards Fettes Park. There seemed to be a jam now and he had no choice but to inch his way forward. He glanced at his watch and thought he might be late if this got out of hand. Unknown to Danny, Fettes Park area was building up a flood of rising waters and motorists were crawling gingerly along the inundated roads. It was still pouring cats and dogs as they say. He switched on the radio to ease the tension in him but as usual the stupid banter of the DJ was very irritating to Danny and he switched stations over and over again until finally he switched the radio off. There were no CDs to play and he thought he would try to get the Boss to fix a player in future, or he would have to bring his own MP3 player next time. The traffic lights turned green and when he noticed the cars in front of him edge forward slowly he realised there was some flooding ahead. The girls behind stopped their gossip when they saw the flood waters but only for a moment, and then they continued with their chatter, much to Danny’s irritation. As he edged forward, the car ahead made the mistake of slowing down too much and that got the flood water to choke the engine and finally the car, an old Proton Wira, stalled. Danny gave out a short curse and some local swear words too as he slammed on the brakes while the chatty girls behind screamed as they were thrown forward. The girls were not hurt and to Danny’s surprise, these cute and young Chinese girls also burst out in dialect profanities and Danny was not sure whether it was directed at him or the driver of the car in front. As they sat in the van waiting for the car in front to restart, the rain became heavier and Danny noticed that the flood waters seemed to be rising, as he noticed currents being formed. He got very worried because he knew if the waters rose further and they got stuck, it would mean real trouble. He made a quick phone call to the last girl he was going to fetch to tell her of the situation and he was shocked to learn from Alice Chew that the front of her house was already flooded with about ten inches of water. Danny asked her to wait for further instructions while he phoned up the Boss. He learned from the Boss too that they were having a mini flood in front of the shop. He then made another phone call to Linda to tell her not to go to work as there was flooding in many places. He just got her in time as she was about to leave for work, not knowing the mayhem outside. In the next instant, Danny saw the car in front being pushed by the flood waters and the water was up to the number plate. The driver, an old man, was seen trying to get out but was unable to open the door. And then Danny realised he too was in trouble. The chatter at the back of the van stopped and then turned to screams. They too were trapped in the van with the waters rising fast. Danny tried to open his car door and was unable to do so due to the water pressure outside, which by now was just under the door handle. He pressed the window button to wind it down and luckily it worked but stopped just a quarter way down as the electrical system was short circuited by the waters. He looked for something to break the window but there was nothing in sight. The girls at the back screamed even louder. He then decided to kick it but that too proved useless. Danny remembered about the head rest and he yanked it out from the seat back rest and used the two steel prongs and that was able to crack the window until he managed to break it enough for an adult to get through. Danny beckoned one of the girls to climb over to the front seat to get out of the van via the window on the driver’s side while he went on to break the other window to create another route for a faster evacuation as the waters kept rising. Scared as they were, yet the girls were able to scramble out via the windows and climbed to the roof of the van and that surprised even Danny, who was the last to get out. Many of them, in their haste, had small cuts from the window’s broken glass edges. Danny was unscathed. While safe for a moment on the roof of the van, it was a frightening moment, and they saw the old man’s car now almost submerged in the raging flood waters with him inside still struggling to find his way out of the car. Then they saw three men swimming towards the partially submerged car to rescue the old man inside. It was Kim Heng, Mokhtar and Ramu. They knew of the floods and were there to make some money for their company, the car repair workshop. They knew there would be accidents and cars needing to be towed away when the cars got stalled in the flood waters. Nevertheless, after they spotted the trouble the old man had got himself into and saw that he would be unable to wade through the chest high flood waters even if he did get out of his car, they started to swim as it would get them to the car faster. When they got to the car, the three men tried to open the door but were unsuccessful. Danny then grabbed the head rest he still was holding and jumped into the waters and swam to them himself. The strong currents nearly swept him off course but he struggled harder to get to them. Mokhtar saw Danny with the head rest and knew at once that was what they needed now and so he swam to get Danny, who was struggling. Danny was relieved that Mokhtar managed to get to him and together they helped each other to reach the others. The girls on the van’s roof top then broke out into a cheer. Heng then took the head rest from Danny and started to break the car window to save the old man. He used all his strength and broke the window after three hard blows, making a gap enough for the old man to escape. The cheering squad, the Promoter girls were now shouting to encourage the old man to get out, but he was too slow and so Ramu grabbed the old man’s hand and eased him out, helped by the others. Now they all stood on the roof of the old man’s car, with the waters rising up every minute. The men knew that they were all far from safety because the flood waters would soon cover the whole car and van . They would have to work out a plan fast. Danny told Kim Heng to help the old man struggle to safety while he would go back to the stranded girls and try to get them out of harm’s way, so he asked Mokhtar and Ramu to accompany him in case some of the girls were too scared to swim or could not swim at all. Many other people had been successful in getting out of their stalled cars and they Danny and the others were the only stranded ones out there. The plan was agreed and Kim Heng helped the old man to leave the almost submerged Wira. The old man held onto his side and they both swam to safety, encouraged by the spectators on the edge of the flood. Then the rest swam to the stranded girls. The men reached them with no difficulties, Ramu reaching first. All the girls wanted the men to help them as they were too scared to swim out unaccompanied, and although they all knew some basic swimming they were gripped by fear. Danny knew it was useless to argue at this moment, as every second could change their situation, so he told the girls they would all be accompanied. This meant the men had to make two trips after Heng and the old man had made it safely. Gingerly, like a slow motion movie, the first girl went into the flood waters closely accompanied by Ramu. When they were halfway out, Mokhtar encouraged the second girl to get into the waters, after asking her to take of her shoes, which she reluctantly did. This one was a good swimmer and Mokhtar needed not to do much but just swam beside her. Ramu was catching his breath and taking a few moments of rest before getting the remaining girls. Danny had a tough time coaxing the third girl to get off the roof of the van. The remaining girls too were encouraging their timid friend to do it. It was some time before she took the plunge and in her panic, she nearly went under the water and Danny had to grab her and used the life guard’s method of towing a drowning person. Danny was glad he had learned this well as a part- time lifeguard in the Chinese Swimming Club in Tanjong Tokong. Thus one by one, all the girls were brought safely through. It was tough work and all the men were tired out. By then the van was totally submerged and the swift currents swept it away. The girls had been very close to a disaster had they remained at the top of the doomed van. Now all the girls were chattering again, lamenting their ruined clothes and make- up and their lost possessions in the van. None of them thanked any of the men who risked their own lives to save them. The old man was different, he thanked Heng and the rest of the men profusely. It is only then that the rescuers got to know each other. “Thank you guys for helping out,” said Danny. “Oh, it’s nothing.” replied Heng. “Luckily you had the head rest and let us use it to free the poor old man,” chipped in Ramu. “OK, now we need to go and see if any other people need help,” said Heng. “Good luck then. I have to be around these girls as they are still my responsibility. Keep in touch if you need my help anytime,” said Danny. He had to memorise Kim Heng’s mobile number as all their mobile phones were soaking wet and could not be used. Danny wished he could join these men but he was stuck with the girls. He watched as Kim Heng and his friends went to bystanders to get more information about the situation. They were engaged in serious information gathering to get an idea from several people about what had been happening. Danny borrowed a mobile phone from one of the crowd that had gathered to contact his boss and briefed him on the situation. He discovered that many parts of Penang had been flooded, even those areas considered “safe”. His boss told Danny to wait at a safe place and await rescue by the civil forces that would go into action. Then he called Linda and learned that she was safe in her apartment, but she told him how extensive the floods were at her place even. The rain just kept pouring down. Dr Looi could not leave for his Clinic and he had told his long time nurse Alice Lim not to open the clinic and take the day off instead. He then went to his computer to try get some sense of the weather. What he stumbled into shocked him. The reports were still sketchy but enough to tell him of the bad situation in the whole country. It was unprecedented. The whole country was having torrential rain and floods were everywhere. It seemed that Kuala Lumpur was the hardest hit. Reports of massive traffic jams, stranded motorists, power failure and simply panic and chaos reigned all over. It was much the same in other major cities like Ipoh, Kuala Kangsar, Teluk Intan, Malacca and most places in Johor state. Penang seemed to be less hit by the mega floods. He read that in Terengganu state, Kemaman faced a worsening situation as the number of evacuees had risen from 36 to 10,898 and twenty 10-ton lorries, twelve excavators and an additional five lorries had been dispatched to deal with the floods. And University Sains Malaysia Hospital in Kubang Krian had sent twenty- five volunteers comprising doctors, paramedics and nurses to help those in affected areas. Then in Pahang state, Pekan town reported 3,241 flood evacuees, followed by Kuantan (924), Maran (670), Temerloh (404), Bera (305) and Rompin (113). The authorities had sent 500 bags of rice, 350 cartons of mineral water, 1,000 cartons of instant noodles and 600 dozens of T- shirts along with six water tankers and three lorry- trailers loaded with various food items to the relief centres. Knowing the situation now, Dr. Looi braced for the floods in Penang, although his area was still holding out. He then made a phone call to his good friend Albert and discovered that he too was at home and monitoring the situation via news report by the local radio stations and TV. He is not very much into the internet. Both had decided to keep each other informed if either received any important news about the flood situation. Dr Looi then went back to his internet to look at what was happening in other parts of the world. He was shocked with what he discovered. He discovered that much of Thailand too had heavy rains and Bangkok was hit with flash floods. Vietnam was preparing for a very strong typhoon that would hit its coasts by the morning and many were preparing to be evacuated. Then he turned his attention to Mt Sinabung in Sumatra, Indonesia. This volcano had been spewing ash for the last three weeks and now suddenly molten lava was flowing down and the villages were being evacuated. However many still remained to tend their fields and watch their properties thus exposing themselves to serious danger. Freak weather was also reported in the USA which was having a severe winter, with temperatures in the Mid-West falling to minus 44 centigrade, this being colder than in the Arctic. It had caused considerable damage from falling trees, electric cables snapped in the severe cold and countless motor vehicular accidents from the slippery conditions, not to mention deaths from both the accidents and cold weather exposure, where an exposed body part can be frozen in five minutes.