BATU PAHAT, Malaysia: Flooding resulting from days of torrential rain has forced almost 40,000 people to flee their homes in Malaysia's southern Johor state, bordering Singapore, and at least four people have died during the past week, officials said on Saturday.
"We used to always prepare for the rainy season in November and December," Mohd Noor Saad, a 57-year-old resident in the town of Yong Peng, in Johor's Batu Pahat district told Reuters.
"Each household had a boat, but now with the unpredictable weather, it seems that we are not prepared and it's become chaotic."
Authorities have set up more than 200 relief shelters for people displaced by the floods, the national disaster management agency said.
Floods in Malaysia are common during the annual monsoon season between October and March, but the downpour this week left many Johor residents scrambling to find shelter.
Carrying belongings out of her house in thigh-high water, cafe worker Kabibah Siam, 54, said she was resigned to fending for herself during the floods.
"What can we do? We cannot complain about our fate because everyone is in the same boat here," she said.
While Johor was worst-hit, there was flooding in other states too that displaced hundreds of people.
Malaysia's meteorological department warned of more rain in coming days, mostly in the southern states.
Malaysia is facing unprecedented continuous torrential rain from the annual monsoon season that began in November. Its worst flooding in decades last took place in 2014, forcing about 118,000 people to flee their homes.
The Southeast Asian nation often experiences stormy weather around the year's end, with seasonal flooding regularly causing mass evacuations and deaths.
- 'Unusual' rainfall volume -
But Meenakshi Raman, president of environmental group Friends of the Earth Malaysia, said the large volume of rainfall is "unusual" at this time of the year, blaming the flooding on the lack of green spaces.
"Forest and land clearings in the upper reaches of our rural areas, towns and cities lead to our rivers and drains chocked with soil erosion and they cannot contain the increased volumes of rainfall.
"Morever, the over-concretising of areas also leads to overflows of water, as there is little green left to act as sponges."
The Meteorological Department has warned that the rain could go on until April.
Some victims were fatalistic.
"We just accept this, whatever God has given. What can we do?" said Kabibah Siam, 54.
"We cannot moan about our luck because over here, everyone is going through the same thing."
