Two dedicated cat lovers who couldn’t bear to watch their beloved pets drown decided to stay in their flooded residence in Kampung Bukit Kecil, Terengganu despite the flash floods that wrecked the area last night (3 December).
The two siblings, Azila Omar and her younger brother, Azmi, are proud owners of 32 cats. When the flood occurred, they said they didn’t have the heart to leave the cats and were only concerned about their safety when the floodwaters in their house rose to 0.5 meters.
“If we left, we could have stayed in my sister’s house while waiting for the floodwaters to recede but I couldn’t just leave these cats here, even if it meant that my brother and I had to stay in the flood,” said Azila in a statement recorded by Harian Metro.
“I’m more worried that the cats will fall into the floodwaters because some of them are blind, deaf and disabled.” Azila said the incident occurred at 10pm last night when she was alone at home. Azmi was at a market near their house.
“The water level rose very fast and I didn’t have time to move everything to a safe space,” added Azila. Unfortunately, 95 per cent of all their belongings could not be salvaged from the flood. Meanwhile, Azmi said their residential area hasn’t been hit by flash floods in a long time since the end of the year 2000.
“The flood might have happened due to heavy rain and high tides. This incident has caused me to lose more than RM10,000,” said Azmi.
What a truly unfortunate turn of events. Hopefully, Azila and Azmi will receive the aid they need to help them through this horrible incident.
