Sabah records slight increase in evacuees: Secretariat

Kuala Lumpur: The only remaining state to be affected by floods, Sabah recorded a slight increase in evacuees with 445 people from 135 families Wednesday evening compared to 443 people from 135 families Thursday morning.

The Sabah State Disaster Management Committee secretariat said in a statement that all evacuees are housed at six relief centres in four districts, Beaufort, Kota Belud, Papar and Tenom.

Beaufort recorded the highest number of evacuees, with 249 people from 76 families, followed by Kota Belud (129 people from 35 families), Papar (41 people from 18 families) and Tenom (26 families from five families). Overall, 111 villages are still affected by the floods, with rain occurring in several districts, including Kota Belud and Beaufort.

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Meanwhile, several non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are redoubling their efforts to help evacuees throughout the country. The Malay Chamber of Commerce Malaysia (MCCM) has approached entrepreneurs for donations to help flood victims throughout the country, and has collected almost RM400,000 so far.

Its deputy president Norsyahrin Hamidon said the initiative this time was not focused only on food and clothing, but also involved electrical appliances such as washing machines.

“It is because we understand the difficulties faced by flood victims who have lost their possessions in the floods and also are facing the pandemic and the Movement Control Order (MCO),” he said in a statement today.

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Besides donations from entrepreneurs, MCCM also accepts contributions from the public through a campaign implemented on social media besides garnering support from several local celebrities to achieve the goal of the donation fund.

Those who wish to contribute can do so through MCCM’s Maybank account (Maybank account no: 5643 2413 7896) using the reference ‘Misi Bantuan Banjir’ or at a special website sponsored by sumbangan.com at https://sumbangan.com/DPMM/BanjirDPMM.

In addition, the Disaster Preparedness and Prevention Centre (DPPC) from the Malaysia-Japan International Institute of Technology (MJIIT), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Kuala Lumpur have implemented a five-day mission to achieve 11 objectives since Jan 8 involving Johor and Pahang.