[VIDEO/PICS] Storm In Penang: Missing Hawker Laid To Rest

A funeral for economy rice seller Lim Chin Aik, 44, whose body is believed to be buried in a deep hole on Jalan Macalister caused by the impact of the lightning arrester that fell from the top of the 21-storey UMNO building, was held today.

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The funeral procession from the jetty began at 11am, with Lim's eldest son, Chia Yiang, 20, carrying an urn bearing mud from the incident site in Jalan Macalister, and daughter Hui Jiune, 13, carrying his portrait.

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Chia Yiang placed the urn filled with mud, which Lee had scooped from a wreckage believed to be Lim's car, into a columbarium. A monk also recited prayers.

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During the funeral procession, Lim's second son Chia Oon held a placard with a message written in Chinese which stated that the family members were keeping their fingers crossed for the death certificate.

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Speaking to the media later, Chin Aik's cousin, Roy Tan Kok Hor expressed hope that the Home Ministry could solve the case soon.

"I hope we can get an answer as to when the inquest will be held," he said.

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Police believe they will be able to confirm the presumed death of 44-year-old hawker, Lim Chin Aik, after getting a closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage of what happened in Jalan Macalister during last Thursday's freak storm.

State police chief DCP Datuk Abdul Rahim Hanafi said the CCTV had clear footage but declined to reveal what was captured. He added the police will help the family to obtain the death certificate. latest by Friday.

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"Details pertaining to the incident will be passed to the law enforcement unit following the completion of the inquest."

"Other than that, the chasis number found at the scene matched that of Lim's car," he said in a press conference at the Penang Road police station.

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Repair works at Jalan Macalister here were halted for 30 minutes Tuesday to make way for a prayer ceremony for economy rice seller Lim Chin Aik, who is presumed buried in a crater following a storm last Thursday.

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Family members of Chin Aik, 44, and priests arrived near the site around 9.10pm and set up a prayer table at an open area beside the UMNO building, Star Online reported.

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Thirty-five-year old architect Clifford Tan was calculating the force of the impact on the car driven by rice seller Lim when the 38m lightning arrestor and part of the “wing wall” holding it fell from the rooftop of the 21-storey Menara Umno in Macalister Road.

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Tan said the debris would “pulverise anything that came into contact with it”. The debris which spiralled downwards would have generated high velocity when plunging, he said.

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It would be difficult to extricate anything which was crushed or pinned down by the sheer force of the falling debris, he added. “I estimated that the wing wall fell from an estimated height of 70m and would cause anything it hit to be crushed to bits,” Tan said.

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Alternatively, this is equivalent to a bundle of 7 fully-loaded RapidPenang buses impacting simultaneously at 133km/h.

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Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi Monday announced that an inquest would be held over three days from tomorrow to certify the death of a rice seller in a freak storm in Jalan Macalister here, last Thursday.

“Penang police chief Datuk Abdul Rahim Hanafi will lead the inquest team. The results will be forwarded to the National Registration Department so a death certificate can be issued for the family to file their insurance claim,” he said.

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Ahmad Zahid said the inquest would verify that the chassis number of the car in the crater matched that of Lim's. The death certificate would facilitate the insurance claim by the family.

Lim is believed to be buried 7m under the rubble following the collapse of a lightning arrestor from Menara Umno after a deadly storm last Thursday.

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DESPERATION has overtaken the family of missing man Lim Chin Aik, 44, who willingly accepted the help of a 13-year-old medium to locate the former's body in the six-metre deep crater on Jalan Macalister.

Foo Jia Mint said he saw the spirit of the 44-year-old economy rice seller when his second son Chia Oon, 18, who has Down Syndrome, was present at the scene on Sunday night.

“I could see he was crying, and he kept pointing to the section of the crater near the Pakistani Mosque. I believe he was telling me where his body was. Jia Mint told the family members, who were in tears, that Lim looked sad and could not talk.

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"I could also see his spirit crying and pointing to where his body laid. He was standing on the muddy debris when I saw him," said Foo.

Jia Mint, who claims to be the godson of Kuan Yin (the Goddess of Mercy), realised he had the gift of being able to see spirits three years ago. Jia Mint's mother Susan Goh, a feng shui master, said she had warned Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng that calamity would befall Penang after GE13.

The search and rescue operation for a victim, at the site in Jalan Macalister where the lightning arrestor pole of a building collapsed during a freak storm on Thursday, was called off at 8am Monday.

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Family members agreed to end the operation after being briefed of the constraints and difficulties faced by the search team. They were also told that the building structures nearby may be at risk if the digging continued, The Star news portal reported.

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On Sunday, the team found three tyres, including a spare, while digging in search of victims believed buried at the site where a lightning arrestor pole from the Menara Umno building collapsed during the storm.

At 7.30am today, the rear seat of a car and a tyre were recovered from the site, some 40 hours after the search operation began. The car has been identified as belonging to Lim Chin Aik, 44, who has been reported missing.

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Penang police chief Datuk Abdul Rahim Hanafi confirmed that the car's chassis number found under the rubble at the scene matched that of food hawker Lim Chin Aik's car.

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Chin Aik’s (left) body is believed to be trapped in a crater in Jalan Macalister caused by the impact of a 50m-long lightning rod that fell from Menara Umno during a storm last Thursday night.

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Meanwhile, the Penang Hospital Forensics Department, led by senior consultant forensic pathologist Datuk Dr Bhupinder Singh, were conducting checks on the wrecked car parts at the scene to look for any human remains.

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“Penangites are in a state of shock, so we must work to get things back to normal fast,” he said, adding that some 260 electric cables were damaged statewide.

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“This is an emergency situation, so we will appoint experienced contractors whom we have worked with before,” he told a press conference after visiting Jalan Macalister where a lightning arrester was ripped off from the top of the 21-storey Menara Umno building.

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Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said his administration was assessing the situation and would also give aid to those whose rooftops were blown away by the strong winds.

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"For those whose rooftops have been blown away, we urge them to lodge a police report. Our welfare department is also assessing the situation," he added.

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Penang Gerakan secretary Dr Lim Boon Ben says, "We cannot stop or control natural disasters but we should take measures to reduce the impact and minimise loss of life and damage."

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Penang PAS wants Umno to compensate the people injured and owners of vehicles that were damaged in the massive storm that hit George Town yesterday and caused a huge lightning rod to fall off the top of the Penang Umno headquarters on Jalan Macalister.

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The incident also resulted in another death of Pihak Berkuasa Air (PBA) staff Wong Tze Chow, 33 - struck by a falling tree - in a separate incident in Air Itam.

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The hour-long storm at 7pm on Thursday, which occurred exactly a week after a ramp to the Second Penang Bridge collapsed and killed a motorist, left its fair share of destruction on Penang Island and the mainland, where a massive clean-up was ongoing.

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Apart from damage to some buildings on the island, roofs on commercial and residential properties needed to be replaced after strong winds either blew them away or they were hit by uprooted trees. Underground power cables as well as water and sewage pipes were also damaged.

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Goh, 49, said the branches damaged the awning and the rolling shutter of her seafront Goh Teo Kee Teo Chew Restaurant. As contractors removed the damaged structure, Goh said she would have to fork out RM20,000 to put in a new awning and rolling shutter.

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More than 100 houses in Seberang Perai Utara, Seberang Perai Tengah and Seberang Perai Selatan were damaged in a thunderstorm last night.

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Penang Gerakan state secretary Dr Lim Boon Ben said the party was concerned over the loss of lives and properties caused by the incidents - the collapse of a ramp in the yet to be completed Second Penang Bridge which happened last Friday, and the freak storm last evening.

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At least five people were injured and are currently receiving treatment at the Penang General Hospital, while at least 200 rooftops have been blown away by the strong winds.

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Its chief executive officer Datuk Adzmi Ariffin said the building would be reopened on Monday and would be safe for occupation.

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A giant crane was used to remove a 20-foot concrete beam hanging precariously from the Umno building on Macalister Road here, after works to assemble the crane completed at about 10.35pm Friday night.

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The strong winds, which started at 7pm, blew off a 40m section of a pole located on top of the 21-storey Menara Umno in Macalister Road.

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The 80-foot antenna tower came crashing down several minutes after the storm hit, crushing a lorry and seven cars. Five people were hurt, including the two who were seriously injured.

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The storm started at about 7pm, the lightning arrester was blown off, taking along a chunk of concrete from the building where it crashed onto the street below, damaging about 11 vehicles and injuring several motorists.

The storm also killed lorry driver Jahir Hussain Sulaiman, 46, whose lorry filled with gas tanks was hit by the communications tower on top of the UMNO building at Jalan Mcalister that broke off and crashed onto seven vehicles on the road.

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The truck’s attendant, Jahir Hussain Sulaiman, 46, was seriously injured after being hit by falling debris.

He was rushed to the Penang Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 9.30pm.

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Penang Welfare, Caring Society and Environment Committee chairman Phee Boon Poh said the rescuers at the scene performed CPR on the two who were badly injured.

He said their injuries were believed to be severe.

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A freak thunderstorm raged in Penang, causing massive damage to property, uprooting trees and jamming up the Penang Bridge.

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Various locations all over the state, on the island and the mainland, were locked in massive jams as trees were uprooted, some falling onto vehicles and blocking up main roads.
On the mainland, it was reported that strong winds blew off the roofs from kampung houses in Permatang Pauh.

One more person was reported to have been killed by the evening storm that wreaked havoc in Penang this evening. He has been identified as Wong Tze Chow who was hit by an uprooted tree at the Air Itam Dam.

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The 33-year-old victim, believed to be a farmer, was jogging in the area when the incident happened at 6.50pm.

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One of the worst scenes was in Jalan Macalister when a giant telecommunications antenna was ripped off from the top of the 21-storey Menara Umno building.

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“Several others are also injured and all the victims have been sent to the Penang Hospital for treatment,” Lim Guan Eng told reporters at the site.

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For now, Lim said seven cars suffered serious damages in the mishap and urged the public to stay away from the area to allow the police and the rescue personnel to clear the area and conduct rescue works.

“We hope nothing else will fall off the roof and we hope the building management would come immediately and bring the keys to give the police and rescue personnel access to the rooftop to remove the dangerous fixtures,” he said.

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Penang chief minister Lim Guan Eng had also asked the police to set up a buffer zone around the 22-storey Umno building as there were still fixtures on the building rooftop that looked like it were hanging onto the building precariously.

As for now, Lim said the state government is still waiting for full reports on the extent of the damages wreaked by the storm.

Malaysian Meteorological Department had on Tuesday issued a first category warning on thunderstorms, heavy rain, strong winds and rough seas for Penang and had warned that these weather conditions will continue until June 17.

State executive council for environment, welfare and caring society Phee Boon Poh hoped the public will take the Meteorological Department’s warning seriously and be more careful in the next few days.

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Tujuh kenderaan termasuk sebuah lori pikap rosak teruk akibat dihempap pemancar telekomunikasi sepanjang kira-kira 20 meter itu.

Seven people were injured, two seriously, when the spire on top of the 21-storey Penang UMNO headquarters broke off and landed on Jalan McAlister crushing seven cars during a storm this evening.

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Berita Harian Online reported that there were seven people injured; two were in serious condition.

The incident occurred at about 7.10pm during a storm.

The impact of the spire landing created some holes in the road.

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The hour-long storm which began at about 7pm uprooted trees and caused flash floods in many parts of George Town.

There was a bad jam in the city as Jalan Macalister had to be closed off.

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FULL STORY: Yet another construction calamity, this time in Penang. The under-construction Penang bridge at Batu Maung collapsed, evening of 6 June 2013. This is what happened. 'Follow This Story' for more updates.

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