Portable pool saves family

Escaping the waters: (From left) A screengrab from the viral video showing Azriel (wearing cap) and his relatives pushing the inflatable pool to safety. Some flood victims at the Penampang Cultural Centre.

KOTA KINABALU: Azriel Nicol Jue Panjan usually spends his free time with his family in their inflatable swimming pool as they enjoy the weekend at their home in Penampang, near here.

Little did he know that the pool, measuring about 2.74m long and 1.5m wide, would turn out to be a lifesaver for his family and relatives as major floods hit their home in Kampung Inobong Kimoligan last Sunday.

Azriel, 29, used the inflatable pool to ferry six children, including his one-year-old infant and daughter, aged two, to higher ground as flood waters gushed into their houses.

His wife, Desiree Petrus, 29, captured the chaotic moment on her mobile phone, and since Sunday, people have been sharing the video numerous times on social media.

In the video, Azriel could be seen pushing the pool with two other men, whom he identified as his father-in-law and brother-in-law.

“In our minds, we just wanted to get the kids to safety; that was our priority,” he said when contacted yesterday.

He said the other children in the floating pool were his in-laws’ children, adding that the youngest was his baby and the eldest was a 10-year-old boy.

“I am slightly over 1.5m tall, but the water was at least 2.1m high at the time. We were swimming as we steered the pool to send the children to our neighbour, who was staying on a hill about 100m away.

“We were in a race against time because the water was still rising as it rained heavily. We could not fit everyone in the pool as it would sink,” Azriel said.

He said they made a total of three trips, with the first being to send over the children before going back to retrieve his pregnant sister-in-law and another relative.

“We went to take my wife and mother-in-law on the final trip. We could not salvage any of our properties. My car and two of our motorcycles were submerged in water, along with all our other belongings and valuables.

“I think we have lost about RM15,000 worth of belongings in the floods,” said Azriel, who works as an electricity metre reader.

While floods were nothing new, he said that this was the worst one to strike Penampang in recent times.

Other neighbours who lived on elevated ground and had never experienced floods, according to him, complained that flood waters, some nearly knee-high, were inundating their homes.

He said the downpour started late Sunday morning, but they did not think much of it.

“We only took notice when water began to stream into my relative’s house, located at a lower level than mine. But the water rose quickly and the undercurrent was also strong, so we decided to get the children to safety first,” he said, adding the non-stop rain caused the nearby Sungai Inobong to breach its banks, further aggravating the situation.

Azriel said they had managed to get in touch with a rescue team but claimed help never came, adding that they later learnt that the rescue agencies were responding to more than 200 distress calls that day.

“I am just thankful my family and relatives are safe. Rather than waiting for others to come to our aid, we decided to do something ourselves,” he said.

While the floods had receded, he said they were still staying in a relative’s house because water supply had not been restored in their village.