A Sugud flood victim taking time to grieve for her loss
By Agnes Chai
Sep 27 2021
SUGUD – An SOS call from Sr Clarice Jomitin FSIC, assisting at the Assumption of Our Lady Sugud (AOLS) parish humanitarian initiative, on Sep 22 sent the Light of Jesus Covenant Community (LJCCC) scrambling for 4WD resources to ferry aid items to the flood victims stranded in the affected villages of the recent mudflow disaster in Sugud.
Together with one 4WD from Mercy Malaysia, three other 4WD owners managed to respond to the ‘last-minute’ call for help.
The AOLS Church and its ‘half-completed’ parish hall have inadvertently become ground zero for the worst ever catastrophe of this kind in this low-lying region of Sugud, triggered by incessant rain on Sep 15.
A week to the flood-hit zone revealed that humanitarian aid continues unabated. The piles of rice bags, stacks of mineral water, uncountable food baskets, cleaning tools, wheelbarrows, basic kitchen utensils, mattresses and pillows, etc collected at the hastily set up “warehouse” at the hall are a clear indication that a caring society is looking out for its people, making sure that no one is abandoned.
The donated items come from multiple NGOs, individuals, business enterprises, charities, other Christian denominations, as well as the KK Archdiocese- and parish-based Caritas aid agencies.
The AOLS parish hall is all abuzz with volunteers helping to sort out the donated items for distribution. Meanwhile, LJCCC volunteers joined those from the Penampang 4WD club, other charities and individuals to provide wheels to ferry to the victims whose houses are either destroyed or partially buried in thick mud and water.
AOLS Catholic Women’s League volunteers as part of the ongoing humanitarian effort for displaced Sugud flood victims
A quick roundabout trip to the affected villages of Timbangoh Laut, Tinduuzon, and Kodou revealed that even after the immediate efforts to clean up the mud-filled roads and some of the houses have given some relief, it is apparent that it would take months to get the villages’ lives back to normal.
From house to house, or whatever the remaining parts of it, villagers sit under their makeshift sheds, dazed and grieving for their losses, wondering how they are going to get back to normalcy. The immediate future looks bleak.
As far as the eye could see, in the horizon is a flat mud field, dotted by boulders and rocks, flushed wood and other debris left by the flood. Here and there, popping up from the mud-filled ground are remnants of floor tiles, a toilet bowl rim, refrigerator, TV set, broken walls and counters resembling a former kitchen, and tilting roofing sheets, indicating that houses have stood there once before but now have vanished.
Remnants from a house that vanished after the Sugud flood
Trees that are still standing after being battered by the mudflow, which struck within minutes without warning on that fateful day, have witnessed how humanity have clung on to them for dear life to save themselves and others from being swept off by the treacherous flood.
Related by a local villager, a one and half month old baby, who was torn from the clutch of his grandmother floundering in the flood, was saved by a nearby neighbor with the help of a tree trunk that served as an anchor.
Another young man volunteered his story, how he and his pregnant wife survived when they desperately reached out and clung on to a clump of trees as they were helplessly being carried away by the strong currents. They are originally from Pitas and after seeing their rented home destroyed, decided to return home.
For victims and those on the side alike, the enormity of the destruction experienced by Sugud folks, witnessed at first hand, must serve as a wake-up call to seriously heed Pope Francis’ call to care for environment in his encyclical, Laudato Si’.
He said, humanity either must live up to its responsibility to care for creation, or continue on a path of self-destruction, in a video message commemorating Earth Day 2021.
Pope Paul VI in 1971 also referred to the ecological concern “Due to an ill-considered exploitation of nature, humanity runs the risk of destroying it and becoming in turn a victim of this degradation.”
Geologist Felix Tongkul said in recent days “The flooding in Sugud was an unnatural one. The cleared forested area for plantation upriver could have made the soil more susceptible to erosion, and thus make the problem worse for those living near the Sugud catchment area. The unusual volume of rain made the Sugud catchment area supersaturated with water, causing the soil to lose strength and prone to slope failure, producing numerous landslides.” (@thevibes 20 Sep)
Pope Francis has spoken volumes on environmental degradation. We will not always remember all of the details – but perhaps it should suffice to remember him saying, before the U.N. General Assembly, that “Any harm done to the environment… is harm done to humanity.”
Let us not be indifferent or resigned to the loss or destruction of our ecosystem, but to resolve to live differently which must affect our various contributions to shaping the culture and society in which we live.
