Kampung Tawas resident Leong Sau Fong and her family members huddled together underneath their staircase, praying that the loud banging and howling winds outside would subside.   Memories of the freak storm that struck the new village on 30 Jan, just two days before Chinese New Year still fresh in her mind, Leong said it was the most terrifying experience of her life.   “It is something I wish I can forget. I pray to God it never happens again,” she said. While the storm did eventually pass on and became an afterthought among most Ipoh folk, feelings of helplessness continued to linger on for many victims whose lives had been literally turned upside down by nature’s fury.   This was true of Leong’s situation until Kinta Properties and Majlis Bandaraya Ipoh (MBI) came to her aid.   “I could not believe our luck when officials from MBI informed my family that Kinta Properties had stepped forward to help us repair our ancestral home. “This home, which we have been renting out to a lorry driver for RM200 monthly, is my family’s main source of fixed income.   “Since the MCO, we’ve not had any steady income. My family collects recyclables and grow our own vegetables to survive,” said the 44-year-old who lives in another house in Kampung Tawas with her elderly mother and aunt as well as disabled sister. According to Leong, her family was able to carry out minor repairs on the home they are currently residing in with allocations from several well-wishers but could not afford to rebuild their badly damaged ancestral home.   “We were resigned to the fact that our ancestral home will be left in a state of disrepair and we would lose our rental income.   “But then, Kinta Properties came to our rescue and for that, we are ever so grateful. We pray that the developer will be blessed with good business in return,” added Leong. Fellow Kampung Tawas villager Kok Tek Mee, 51, is equally thankful for the help rendered by Kinta Properties.   “Our home suffered badly because of the freak storm. Our roof was blown away while part of the structure of our wooden house came apart. Beams were broken while nails came loose.   “We merely nailed back whatever parts of the zinc roof we could salvage. With my husband’s sole income as a factory worker, we had no means of repairing the house. “We are indebted to Kinta Properties. We are very thankful,” said the housewife who had to put up with a leaking roof and fears of her house collapsing after the freak storm.   Leong’s ancestral home and Kok’s home are two new village houses being repaired by Kinta Properties at a total cost of RM60,000 as part of its Better Together Corporate Social Responsibility Project.   This is in addition to the RM40,000 repairs and improvement works carried out at the homes of 44 other storm victims at nearby Taman Tasek Damai earlier in February through the MBI Prihatin programme. Kinta Properties director Edwin Tan Beow Aik, who visited the two homes with Datuk Bandar Dato Rumaizin Baharin on Monday, 28 March, said work on Kok’s house was almost complete with efforts to rebuild Leong’s ancestral home to commence immediately after.