What you’re about to see is not a snippet from Into The Storm, but something that actually happened right here in Malaysia.
Just this evening, in fact.
First reported by NST, heavy rain and strong winds helped form a landspout that created havoc in Kampung Alor Besar and Taman Sri Kota in Kuala Kedah this evening. What’s a landspout and how is it different from a tornado, you ask?
According to CBS 5 News Channel:
By definition, a Landspout (once known as “Dust Tube Tornadoes”) is just a type of tornado. It is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with a cloud and the surface of the earth. What makes this different than the “typical” tornado, is how it develops and what it is attached to. Unlike the Supercellular Tornadoes, it does not move from base of the cloud to the ground. It actually develops near the surface and works it’s way up.
In the Kedah incident, several houses in the village and a Sekolah Kebangsaan Alor Besar building were damaged in the incident that occurred at around 4pm. The school’s computer lab and another building within the compound were also damaged.
A source at the Meteorology department confirmed that it was a landspout which can occur in instances of strong winds. “A landspout is similar to a waterspout. The only difference is that it occurs over land,” he said.
According to The Star Online, lamp-posts and electricity cables also came crashing down but no injuries were reported. Pendang Civil Defence Department Assistant Civil Defence Officer Norashikin Ahmad Zawawi said:
So far, the roofing of 8 village houses were identified damaged by the freak storm. About 40 residents of the village were affected by the storm. Presently they are temporarily evacuated to close relatives’ houses. During the incident, the sky was covered with dark cloud and no rain but wind was very strong.
Other witnesses said the spout resembled a twister and was swirling across paddy fields.
In Alor Star, the less-than-one-minute freak storm that occurred in Taman Sri Kota resulted in 5 houses having their roofs ripped off. However, luckily no one was injured during the raging winds which started at about 4:30pm.
An odd job worker, Saw Teong Heang, 52, said that he was about to reverse his car when he heard a loud noise and saw his roof being ripped off: “It happened so fast and I immediately shouted to my family who were inside the house to find a safe place to hide.”
45-year-old Ooi Pu King, a salesman, said he could do nothing but watch in horror as the storm ripped off his house roof. “I was preparing to hold a special prayer when the storm ripped off the roof my home. I am thankful that no one was injured in the freak storm,” he said.
Oh gosh, that entire ordeal must be traumatising to witness! We’re just glad nobody was hurt.
