SHAH ALAM: An angler using his 3.7m inflatable kayak rescued more than 70 people from the severely flooded Taman Sri Muda area here.
He even saved a man from drowning.
“I heard him call ‘tolong’ (help) at around midnight. The voice was weak and it sounded like he was gurgling.
“I searched desperately for him and saw him just before he went down. If I was even a few seconds late, I would have lost him,” said Oscar Hor, 41.
After rescuing the man, who is a foreign worker, Hor learned that the man lived in an apartment and, driven by hunger, tried swimming about 1km in search of food.
“He tried to swim back after getting food.
“He put the food in a plastic bag, tied it tightly, and tried to use the plastic bag as a sort of flotation device.
“But there was not enough air inside,” said Hor.
Hor then ferried the man back to his apartment.
Hor said he was out on the water from 8am to 2am between Sunday and yesterday.
Initially, he searched flooded homes for people who wanted to be evacuated and brought them to higher ground.
But as more good Samaritans arrived with food and drinking water, Hor began distributing these to the flood victims.
He used 20 litres of petrol on his outboard engine and after resting and refuelling, he went back out again yesterday to continue sending rations to those holed up in their apartments or stuck on the top floors of their homes.
And he was not alone. More than 15 anglers on inflatable kayaks were in Taman Sri Muda to either help evacuate flood victims or send rations. They all bought their kayaks from Hor, who sells them for a living.
“My shop in Taman Mas, Puchong, is badly flooded too.
“There is nothing I can do about it for now, but I heard the situation in Taman Sri Muda was even worse, so I came here to help,” said Hor.