LETTERS: When D-Day to invade Normandy was being planned during World War II, books and movies showed the number of times US President Eisenhower referred to weather reports and projections from the meteorological department.
The Germans also had a similar forecast. They could even predict when there would be the next clear day, months ahead.
That's over 77 years ago. We are now approaching 2022. We are in the 21st Century. Not only have humans walked on the moon, Malaysia has also sent our own astronaut to space.
We have launched satellites, we pride ourselves on being one of the fully developed nations in the very near future. Information is transmitted at the blink of an eye.
Yet, we failed to predict or project heavy rain and extreme weather consequences. We seem to also fail to coordinate and mobilise relief units and rescue teams effectively.
Everything that can go wrong went wrong for the Dec 17, 2021 weekend floods in eight of the 11 peninsula states. My own father and his two friends, like many others in Selangor, were also caught in Shah Alam and unable to return home until 4pm the next day.
I tried to look for traffic updates online that weekend. There were none. All the Twitter Accounts were silent, nothing much was said on the online media and every single traffic camera at the highways and expressways were down.
I had to totally rely on unofficial updates.
There needs to be a better early warning system and better coordination among the various agencies concerned.
When it comes to disasters, red tape should be avoided and put aside as safety and security is paramount. Unfortunately, we also had to deal with deaths that happened in their own homes.
This disaster and the disastrous response needs to be answered and Parliament needs a special session just to address and answer these issues.
Megat Shah Rizal Noor Ikhsan
Kuala Lumpur
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times
