Number Of Evacuees Continues To Rise In Flood-hit Sabah, Sarawak

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 31 (Bernama) – The number of evacuees at flood relief centres in Sabah and Sarawak has continued to rise, with 15,015 this morning compared to 11,886 last night.

In SARAWAK, the number of evacuees rose to 9,398 from 2,725 families this morning, up from 7,503 from 2,096 families last night.

According to the State Disaster Management Committee Secretariat, Bintulu had the highest number of evacuees at 4,021 (1,090 families), all housed at six relief centres, followed by Serian at 1,886 (602 families) at 15 relief centres.

In Selangau, 900 people from 226 families were still housed at four relief centres, while 1,353 people from 393 families were at three relief centres in Tatau and 475 people from 153 families at three centres in Kuching.

In SABAH, the number of flood evacuees continued to rise, with 5,617 from 1,899 families as at 8 am, compared to 4,383 from 1,475 families last night.

The Sabah Disaster Management Committee Secretariat reported that 39 relief centres have been opened across 10 districts, with Kota Marudu recording the highest number of evacuees at 2,944 from 1,090 families.

Other affected districts were Pitas with 768 evacuees (261 families), Lahad Datu (443 people from 121 families), Telupid (413 people from 110 families), Kota Belud (301 people from 88 families), Paitan (274 people from 99 families), Beluran (195 people from 60 families), Sandakan (118 people from 28 families), Beaufort (107 people from 29 families), and Tongod (54 people from 13 families).

The report stated that the evacuation trend in Kota Marudu, Pitas, and Paitan was increasing, while trends in other districts remained unchanged.

-- BERNAMA