MIRI – At least three rural constituencies in northern Sarawak have been hit by floods again.
Villagers told The Vibes today that torrential rain and overflowing rivers are bringing in flash floods since late yesterday and early this morning.
Information from these villagers and Civil Defence Force units showed that floods are in the constituencies of Telang Usan, Mulu and Marudi.
Today, populated settlements of Long Panai, Long Teru, and Long Bemang in Telang Usan are seeing floodwaters of about 1m high.
These places are about seven hours by timber road from Miri city.
In the Mulu constituency, settlements of Long Tungan, Long Jeeh, Long Tuan, and Tutoh-Apoh basin are inundated with floodwaters about 0.5m high.
Long Tungan is about eight hours from Miri by land and boat.
In Marudi, at least four populated longhouses are seeing 0.8m deep flood waters.
They are Rumah Janggu, Rumah William, Rumah Janting, and Rumah Kayai.
Community leaders are calling on political representatives to render help to the stranded villagers.
Baram Protection Action Committee chairman Philip Jau said the important link roads from the rural settlements to Miri are also flooded.
“Rain has been heavy for the past few days. It looks like the floods will worsen.”
The Fire and Rescue Department and Civil Defence stations in the affected localities have been alerted of the latest floods.
They are on standby to facilitate emergency evacuations if the floods worsen.
Last week, almost 5,000 people throughout Sarawak were evacuated due to floods.
They had all returned home on Thursday after spending three days in flood-relief centres. – The Vibes, January 23, 2021
