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Thursday January 13, 2011
Floods ease in Bau and Kuching
By SHARON LING
[email protected]
KUCHING: The flood situation in Kuching and Bau is improving with rainfall easing. Only six families are left at two evacuation centres.
Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr George Chan said five centres which had been opened on Tuesday were closed yesterday.
As at noon, two centres were still open at Kampung Melayu Pangkalan Baru and Kampung Buso with three families in each centre.
Inundated: Six villages in the Matu and Daro districts in Sarawak have been submerged due to the floods yesterday. – Bernama
He said flooding had earlier caused 223 families involving 1,143 people to be evacuated, while 77 families involving 385 people moved to higher ground or to relatives’ homes.
“There are still rain clouds at the coastal areas. The clouds did not move inland, that’s why we did not have as much rain as predicted on Tuesday night.
Hopefully the situation will still be the same and we will not have heavy rain.
“But it’s best to be on the safe side and expect rain and get ready for it, especially the low-lying areas of Siniawan and Bau,” he said at a press conference at his office here.
Dr Chan, who is also state disaster relief committee chairman, added that flood mitigation works had been carried out in Bau town to prevent flooding.
He also said nine schools were closed on Tuesday, comprising four which were flooded and five whose access roads were inundated.
Yesterday three schools were still closed - SMK Bau, SJK Chung Hua Buso and SK Buso - affecting some 2,153 students.
In addition, he said Kampung Berjaya in Matu Daro, Mukah was flooded yesterday but there were no evacuees as the floodwaters were less than a metre deep and the houses were built on stilts.
“But we have alerted the evacuation centres just in case.”
