SANDAKAN: About 80 per cent of houses in Kampung Segaliud, here, were affected by last Saturday’s floods, said Sekong Assemblyman, Alias Sani.
Alias said his check at the affected areas showed many of the houses had damages and some cars belonging to the residents were also submerged in flood waters.
He said as many as 40 houses or household heads (KIR) were also affected by the disaster.
“A total of 36 KIRs were also reported to have been stranded as their houses were surrounded by flood waters,” he said, adding there were also KIRs forced to stop their agriculture activities and the same for fishermen from 71 houses in the village.
He said the flood has caused two landslides as well as affected five shops, eight vehicles, a suspension bridge and four fish ponds, among others.
Alias also visited the flood victims who were housed at the Temporary Evacuation Centre (PPS) opened at Dewan SMK Segaliud.
As of 2pm on Tuesday, the Malaysian Civil Defence Force (APM) Sabah reported that there were seven families of 46 people still staying at the PPS. The flood started to recede since the day before, but the rain is still falling and residents are on high alert.
This village, located about 70km from Sandakan town near the road leading to Kinabatangan, is under the Batu Sapi parliamentary constituency and Sekong state seat.
“As the Assemblyman, I will also write a letter to the Chief Minister to request for consideration of assistance or anything necessary for the flood victims in Kampung Segaliud,” said Alias.
“Besides, at this time, what we need to do is to help the residents clean their houses which are full of thick mud by trying to mobilise the non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and youths from Sandakan to come and help in Kampung Segaliud,” he said.
Regarding the tide phenomenon in his constituency, Alias said he has also been monitoring the situation in several water villages in the Batu Sapi area since Monday.
He said on Saturday’s night, the tide was 2.5m high at around 9.45pm and the situation was choppy.
“Then on Sunday night, the tide was 2.7m high and last night (January 3) it was 2.8m high and I also went out to patrol from Kg. Bokara to Kg. Sundang.
“We are thankful that the houses were not affected by the tide water,” he said.
As of last night (Monday) while on patrol, he said there were no major damages reported.
Alias said also monitored in Kg. Bakau, Kg. Lupak Meluas, Kg. Cenderamata and Kg. Sundang, and no houses were affected.
“We hope that the tide water level, which is expected to be at 2.8m high on Tuesday, will not be accompanied by waves,” he said.
He is worried about the situation of the residents living in Pangkalan Sundang because their houses are relatively low and by the sea.
Regarding PPS, he said, the residents in the affected areas in Sekong will be placed in PPS PPR Batu Sapi, while there are also those going to stay at their respective relative’s house on land.
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