Floods Round-up: Eye on Raging Seas, Strong Winds

Floods round-up: Eye on raging seas, strong winds for next 72 hours

The Meteorological Department has issued a first category warning for the coastal waters off Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang, east Johor, east Sarawak, Labuan and west Sabah for the next 72 hours.
The warning was raised following expected strong northeasterly winds of 40-50kph and rough seas with waves of up to 3.5 metres.

In addition, it also warned of high tides during the period when the coastal areas in the east coast of peninsula and the west of Sarawak would be vulnerable to the rise in water levels.

The department had reported moderate to occasionally heavy rain over Sabah (Labuan, divisions of Kudat, Sandakan, west coast, Tawau and interior), triggering the orange alert.

It issued a yellow alert for Sarawak (divisions of Limbang, Miri, Bintulu, Mukah, Sibu, Sarikei, Betong, Sri Aman, Samarahan and Kuching).
In Pahang, the flood situation showed signs of improvement yesterday except in the riverine areas of Pekan, Maran and Kuantan.

The overall number of evacuees dropped from 16,791 to 13,516 as more people at relief centres in Rompin, Bera and Temerloh were allowed home.

There were 266 evacuees in Rompin and 48 in Bera yesterday. All relief centres in Temerloh were closed by late afternoon.

The situation, however, remains the same in Pekan, which is the worst-hit district.

The number of evacuees there remained at above 9,000.

"We were nonetheless grateful that it did not get any worse in Pekan as the weather was relatively good yesterday," said a spokesperson at the state flood operations centre in Kuantan.

"A downpour, combined with the high tide last night would have aggravated the floods."

He said Pekan, which is located near the Sungai Pahang estuary, would be put on high alert at least until Christmas Day due to the high tide phenomenon.

It will also be high alert for areas along the upper parts of the river in Maran which saw only a slight decrease in the number of evacuees hovering above 3,000.

Kuantan, which has a number of flood-prone villages along Sungai Kuantan, suffered the same problem with the number of evacuees remaining at over 1,000.

All major roads were opened yesterday, except the stretch at Km24-30 of Jalan Kuantan-Pekan, near Paloh Hinai and Kampung Ubai.

In Kelantan, floodwaters continued to recede yesterday with many victims making their way home to face the backbreaking task of cleaning up the muck and assessing damages.

A state police flood operations centre official said that 315 families comprising 1,240 people were still staying at relief centres in Tumpat.

He said the relief centres in Pasir Mas and Rantau Panjang, two areas which were badly affected by floods, had been closed.

However, authorities were still monitoring the situation as the water level at Sungai Golok was still touching the danger level at 9.27m.

In Kedah, 919 people from 212 families were still at seven relief centres throughout the state.

A spokesperson said of the total, 768 people were in the Kota Star district and 151 in Kubang Pasu.

All the relief centres in Pokok Sena were closed as at 11am yesterday.

In Johor, a total of 813 people from 191 families were still at 20 relief centres in Segamat and Muar.