MORE than 10 houses were damaged by a storm in Kampung Padang Mengkuang, Berangan, near Marang at 3.30pm yesterday.

A victim, Ambak Mohd, 79, said he and three other family members were resting at home after lunch when a strong wind suddenly swept through his house, causing a large part of the roof to be torn off.

“At the time, the rain was not too heavy, but the wind was powerful, and the loud noise was scary,” he said when met at his house last night.

“My son quickly told us to get out of the house because he was worried that the roof would collapse.”

Meanwhile, preparations for the Hari Raya Aidilfitri open house by Terengganu government subsidiary TDM Bhd with the community of Marang district were also affected when five large tents were blown away by the wind.

Pengkalan Berangan assemblyman Sulaiman Sulong said apart from the tents, the main stage, which took four hours to set up, also collapsed in the incident.

“All the tent and stage installation work was completed in the morning (yesterday) because the open house is tomorrow afternoon (today),” he said when met at the venue in Kampung Padang Mengkuang.

“Out of the seven tents, only two are usable. We had to mobilise more manpower to rebuild the stage and tents.”

Sulaiman said he was thankful that no one was injured in the incident.

“There were several staff members at the scene when the storm hit, but alhamdulillah, they all managed to run to safety and take shelter inside a mosque,” he said.

Sulaiman said all damaged houses would be repaired immediately and the Pengkalan Berangan community service centre would provide assistance. – Bernama, May 18, 2023.