Asiah Osman, 63, and her 62-year-old sister were forced to share the roof with the pets and the reptile for around 10 hours. She told My Metro: “I climbed the roof of the house at 7 p.m. with my sister and four of our pet cats after the water rose due to the non-stop rain from the morning.”
Osman says that while on the roof, she saw the python right behind her, but she kept it a secret from her sister, fearing she would jump off the roof and into the floodwaters.
She added: “I said ‘Oh snake you are looking for shelter, I am looking for shelter, you don’t bother me and I won’t bother you either.’”
She added that at 5 a.m. when the water started to recede, the snake slithered off the roof and disappeared. She and her sister climbed down to the ground. The snake did not harm the sisters or their four cats.
“We had to do everything to survive as other villagers could not reach us,” Osman added.
On December 28, Al Jazeera reported that the South-East Asian country of Malaysia is experiencing the worst flooding it has seen since 2014. The country’s Prime Minister, Ismail Sabri Yaakob, is facing criticism from residents of the country for reacting too slowly to the floods, which have claimed 48 lives and left five people missing.
The torrential rains have also forced tens of thousands of Malaysians to flee their homes. The floods, which began on December 17, have left homes ruined with the sight of damaged appliances and soaked furniture piled up on streets common.
Asniyati Ismail, a resident of Shah Alam, the capital of Selangor state, told Al Jazeera: “I am angry. There is no assistance from the government … We need cash to rebuild our lives.”
Osman, a retired bank worker, told The Star that she had lived in the home she and her sister were forced to flee for 40 years. She said the floods had affected her deeply, adding that she would leave the village if it rains heavily for more than two hours again.
“It was the first time a flood of such magnitude occurred in the village.”
