Strong winds blow off roof of 15-storey building

The roof of a 15-storey building housing civil servants was blown off, near Presint 15 here, during a downpour yesterday.

Mohd Ridzuan Mat Shariff, a resident there, said he heard the howling of strong winds and then a loud noise.

"At first, I thought nothing of it and figured the sound was because of the storm outside.

"But then I saw debris and zinc sheets flying about.

"The roof was blown off and fell on the road," he said at the scene.

It was reported that a thunderstorm had also wreaked havoc in nearby areas. In Kampung Datuk Abu Bakar Dengkil, 15 houses were damaged by strong winds.

Federal Territories Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor, who was at the scene, said he was informed of the incident by residents about 7pm.

A portion of the roof structure from the building near Presint 15 in Putrajaya which was blown off during a downpour last night.


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Funeral for storm victim goes ahead

Lim Chin Aik's family hasn't obtained a death certificate

GEORGE TOWN: THE funeral of Lim Chin Aik, 44, who is presumed dead after a lightning arrestor at Menara Umno landed on his car during a freak storm on June 13, went ahead yesterday although his family had not obtained a death certificate.

The mood was somber as family members and friends gathered to pay their last respects to Lim at Lim Jetty here.

His wife, Lee Chai Song, 48, cut a forlorn figure while his mother, Ang Kim Looi @ Ang Kim Hooi, 70, cried and had to be consoled.

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.

Another son, Chia Oon, 18, who has Down's syndrome, was seen carrying a bunting, expressing the family's hope for the issuance of a death certificate.

The funeral procession of Lim Chin Aik on its way to Kek Lok Si Temple’s columbarium in Penang yesterday.

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Menara Umno may face closure

Structu ral issue: The crack spotted on a rooftop beam of the Menara Umno in Penang.

The owner of Menara Umno has been directed to fix a deep crack found on a rooftop beam or risk the building being closed down.

“The abnormal crack, measuring about 15cm in width and 45cm in length, was detected by Penang Municipal Council (MPPP) officers du­­ring an inspection of the building on Friday.

“We will leave it to MPPP to ascertain the seriousness of the crack. If the building is not safe, it will be closed down,” Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said at Komtar yesterday.

Lim added that the cracked beam was facing Macalister Road and the building owner JKP Sdn Bhd had put up a safety net around it.

“But the council is not satisfied with a mere safety net. It is unlikely the concrete beam will drop onto the road but it might fall within the building compound.”

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Penang temple agrees to house storm victim’s urn

The Kek Lok Si Temple has agreed to allow the late Lim Chin Aik’s urn to be placed on its premises in Air Itam.

Chin Aik’s wife Lee Chai Song had filled the urn with mud scooped from the wrecked car parts found at the crater in Jalan Macalister.

Lim is believed dead and his body buried at least 40m or 13 storeys underground after his car was hit by a lightning arrestor that snapped and fell off the 21-storey Menara Umno during a freak storm on June 13.

Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said the state had appointed lawyers Karpal Singh and Gobind Singh Deo to represent the family to look into the legal matters.

“I’ve spoken to Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and he promised to make a request to the Attorney-General to hold an inquest,” he told a press conference at Komtar yesterday.

He said National Registration Department (NRD) director Datuk Jariah Mohd Said had in a letter explained that under Section 18 of the Births and Deaths Registration Act 1957 (Act 299), the department could not issue a death certificate yet.

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‘Body buried 13 storeys deep’

Former Institution of Engineers Malaysia (northern branch) chairman Lim Kok Khong says the body of Lim Chin Aik is believed to be buried at least 40m or 13 storeys underground and under a 30m-long solid mass of steel-reinforced concrete.

Kok Khong said the sheared off length of the lightning arrestor's concrete section was 38m-long and it had directly impacted the driver's section.

“It was so great it completely cut off the driver's section and drove it deep into the ground,” Kok Khong said. “He would have been killed instantly.”

“Imagine a giant pencil being driven into the ground, the top quarter would have broken off, shattering the surrounding surface, while the rest was completely buried underground.

“The remainder of the car was dragged down to a depth of 8m to 9m.

“Only the upper 10m of the arrestor's concrete section has been recovered,” he said. “The rest remains buried with the victim.”

Technical Explanation why failure to retrieve the body in Jalan Macalister incident

Further to the technical explanation of the Menara UMNO tragedy provided by MPPP engineers yesterday: The technical briefing was professional and comprehensive,... but not widely circulated. There is still a gap between the technical report from the experts and the reports in the media, leading to the public wondering why the victim's remains cannot be recovered from the impact site.

The simple reason is that MPPP has literally hit a concrete wall in the effort to recover the remains.

During the freak storm, the top section of the wing/fin-wall on the UMNO Tower sheared off and came down on Jalan Macalister. This section of the wall was approximately 38m long and was mostly constructed of reinforced concrete. The mass of the section may have been as much as 200 metric tons, and it fell from a height of approximately 70m.

The photos below are still images captured from a police CCTV that captured the moment of impact. The first frame shows the concrete mass impacting the victim's car. In the next frame, the car completely vanishes from view as it is driven into the impact crater.

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Family members hold seventh-day prayers

Lim Chin Aik’s family members holding prayers near the Penang Museum and Art Gallery in Jalan Macalister yesterday.

Mass prayers were held near Menara Umno to appease the soul of the missing and presumed dead hawker Lim Chin Aik.

The prayers marked the seventh day since last Thursday when Chin Aik was believed to have been crushed to death by a lightning arrestor that fell off from the rooftop.

Condolences were also extended to two other people who were killed in the freak storm.

A minute's silence was observed prior to the chanting, held under a makeshift canopy near the Penang Museum and Art Gallery in Jalan Macalister. The hour-long chanting started at 6.30pm.

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Hawker's family views CCTV clip

Workers covering the 6m hole in Jalan Macalister yesterday

It shows lightning arrestor falling on Lim Chin Aik's car in Jalan Macalister during storm

GEORGE TOWN: FAMILY members of hawker Lim Chin Aik were yesterday shown how his Honda City sustained a direct hit by the falling lightning arrestor in a 34-second video during the storm, here, on June 13.

The video, obtained from a closed-circuit television (CCTV) in Jalan Macalister, recorded vehicles passing along the stretch at 6.33pm.

A minute later, as the winds blew strongly, the video showed the falling lightning arrestor hitting Chin Aik's car, after which a blackout occurred.

Chin Aik's body has yet to be recovered.

Family members, including Chin Aik's parents, Lim Tian Chor, 73, and Ang Kim Looi @ Ang Kim Hooi, 70, as well as younger brother Khung Ling viewed the video at Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng's office.

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Tests find no trace of body tissue from wreckage

Local authorities filling up the crater at Jalan Macalister, Penang.



Police are unable to detect any body tissue and blood stain belonging to 44-year-old missing hawker Lim Chin Aik in its forensic investigations.

Lim is presumed death after he was believed to have been crushed to death by a pole which fell off the Menara Umno in Jalan Macalister during a freak storm last Thursday.

Northeast district police chief Assistant Commissioner Gan Kong Meng said the forensic and chemistry departments could not trace any remains of Lim after scouring for Lim's DNA from the car wreckage unearthed from the gaping hole.

"We believe his body is there (buried below the road surface) and it cannot be recovered," Gan told a press conference today.

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CCTV to shed light on missing hawker

Police have obtained CCTV footage of the incident in Jalan Macalister to help shed light on the mystery surrounding economy rice seller Lim Chin Aik who is believed to be buried in a crater there.

State police chief Deputy Comm Datuk Abdul Rahim Hanafi said the CCTV has clear footage but declined to elaborate.

The footage was obtained from a surveillance camera installed at a lamppost in front of Menara Umno where a lightning arrester snapped and fell off the 21-storey building following a freak storm last Thursday.

He added that the police would help the family to obtain the death certificate by Friday following a directive from Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

“The chassis number found at the scene matched those of Lim’s car,” he said at the Penang Road police station.

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Rush to escape storm proves deadly

Muhameed Selem Tastakhir (pic) and his friend worked hard to get back to their base to escape a storm. Sadly for him, their haste led to his co-worker being killed when tonnes of concrete and metal fell on their gas tank delivery truck.

Selem, 34, said he had no inkling of what was about to happen as he was driving towards Menara Umno en route to their base in nearby Tamil Street.

“It happened so fast. I didn't know what hit me,” said Selem, who only suffered minor injuries to his head.

Unfortunately, Selem's close friend of two years, Indian national Jahir Hussain Sulaiman, 46, did not survive the accident and died from his injuries in hospital.

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Pole collapse due to design error

The collapse of a lightning rod pole in Penang recently was probably due to an error in its design.

The pole was fitted with more than a dozen metal discs that served as a ladder for a maintenance technician to reach the lightning rod mounted on top of the pole.

Due to the presence of strong winds at the time of the collapse, the discs offered a much stronger resistance to the wind and this caused the pole to bend in various directions.

The extreme length of the pole resulted in strong physical forces on the brackets that anchored it to the building and this resulted in the pole being ripped off the building, along with whatever that was anchored to it.

This analysis is based on my observation of hundreds of lightning rod poles that were installed in various cities in Japan nearly two decades ago.

Although they are impacted annually by strong typhoon winds that are at least twice as strong as the one reported in Penang, they hardly collapse even after years of exposure to the typhoons.

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Penang freak storm: Inquest to be held to certify death of missing hawker

An inquest will be carried out to certify the death of 44-year-old economy rice seller who is believed buried in a crater in Macalister Road, said Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

He said the inquest, to be carried out for three days starting today, was to give closure to Lim Chin Aik's family.

“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 at the Penang State Museum and Art Gallery in Macalister Road near the incident site yesterday.

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.

The impact of the structure's fall also killed Indian national Jahir Hussain Sulaiman, 46.

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Penang freak storm: Search called off for sake of heritage buildings

 

Car debris found inside the crater.

The search operation for Lim Chin Aik has been called off due to safety reasons over the buildings nearby.

Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said the operation ended on the advice of engineering experts who had warned that continuous digging might cause soil movement and erosion.

“We fear that digging works might endanger the prized heritage buildings in this area,” he said near the scene yesterday. “The buildings might cave in or collapse.”

Lim has been listed as missing after his car was believed to have been hit by debris from a fallen 38m-long lightning arrestor during a freak storm on Thursday.

Guan Eng said the road would likely be opened on Thursday, adding that the immediate task was to stabi-lise the affected ground with sand.

He said all the relevant agencies had agreed to speed up on the ground works, including the repair to cables and pi-ping.

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Penang freak storm: Family grieves as search gets called off

The family of the man believed buried some 7m underground in the Macalister Road tragedy broke down when the search for Lim Chin Aik's body had to be called off.

Sobbing uncontrollably, Lim's wife Lee Chai Song, 48, scooped mud from the last piece of his wrecked car part that had been dug out of the crater where Lim was believed to have been buried.

“We cannot find your body. We will treat this wet soil as your remains and bring you home,” she cried in Hokkien.

Lim, 44, is feared buried after debris from a lightning arrestor snapped and fell off the 21-storey Menara Umno and hit his car following a freak storm on Thursday.

Lim's mother Ang Kim Looi, 70, also wept when she was told that the operation had been called off.

“Wa chin chia sayang lu, lu chai bor? (I love you very much, do you know that?),” the grief-stricken mother said in Hokkien.

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Penang freak storm: ‘I saw his spirit, he was crying’

Prayers of hope: Jia Mint (front) leading a prayer alongside Lim’s family members at the scene of the tragedy in Macalister Road.

A 13-year-old boy claims he saw the spirit of Lim Chin Aik.

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.

“I then volunteered my services to help summon Lim's spirit in a 10-minute ceremony here in the presence of his mother, wife and two sons,” he said at the scene.


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Penang freak storm: Architect: force that hit Lim’s car would crush anything

What kind of force shears open a road and drives a car some six metres into the ground? According to an engineering expert, the force that hit the Honda City driven by Lim Chin Aik was equal to having seven buses travelling at 130kph hitting him simultaneously.

The full capacity of each stage bus is 60 passengers and the driver.

Thirty-five-year old Singapore-based 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. 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 in a telephone interview from Singapore.

It would be difficult to extricate anything which was crushed or pinned down by the sheer force of the falling debris, he added. The fate of the driver is still unknown but he is feared dead.

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Forensics sieve wreckage for human remains

Officials from the Penang Hospital are examining bits of a car that was unearthed from the Jalan Macalister crater for bone particles.

Six Penang Hospital forensic department’s pathologists headed by Datuk Dr Zahari Noor were seen sieving through the remnants of the car to confirm the death of Lim Chin Aik, 44, who is believed to be buried alive in the wreckage.

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Search called off for victim of Penang freak storm

Rescue workers have now called off the search for a man believed buried in his car after a freak storm toppled a lightning arrestor pole in Jalan Macalister, George Town, last Thursday.

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.

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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Menara Umno owner failed to comply with rule

The building owner of Menara Umno, where a lightning arrestor landed on several cars last Thursday, failed to submit a safety audit report which was due in 2011.

Tanjong MP Ng Wei Aik said a check with the Penang Municipal Council found that the building owner had failed to submit the report required under Section 85A of the Street, Drainage and Building Act 1974.

“The owner failed to comply with the common practice required once in every 10 years.

“It is meant to safeguard the safety aspects of a building,” he said at the scene yesterday.

Ng said civil action could be taken against the owner, as the Act carries a fine of up to RM100,000, a jail term of five years or both, upon conviction.

Deputy Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Hilmi Yahaya, who was also present at the scene, said he would ask the building owner to investigate the incident.

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