SANDAKAN: Another 38 stilt houses in Kampung Forest, here, collapsed due to the high tide phenomenon since Sunday night, bringing the total number of affected houses to 108.
Sandakan District Police Chief ACP Abdul Fuad Abdul Malek said a total of 70 houses collapsed on Sunday due to the phenomenon on Saturday night.
“The number of evacuees at the relief centre in Sekolah Kebangsaan Sungai Anib 2 also increased to 684 people,” he told reporters, Monday.
Abdul Fuad said he was thankful that no casualties were reported, as residents in the coastal areas had adhered to the authority’s advice to vacate their homes Sunday night.
He said the high tide phenomenon is expected to occur again Monday night, adding that the police have deployed vehicles and personnel to help the residents to evacuate.
A family of six, who had earlier declined evacuation from the water settlement, finally had to abandon their house and spend the night in a car as a safety precaution after the tide started rising Sunday night.
Riden Abdul Mutalib, 43, said his family feared that the only bridge linking their house to land at Kampung Forest would be submerged when the water level began rising at about 9pm.
“If the bridge collapses, we will be stranded in our house.
“Many stilt houses in the settlement had collapsed (last Saturday). There is no power supply now,” he said when met at the village.
Riden said the family chose not to be evacuated to the relief centre (PPS) at Sekolah Kebangsaan Sungai Anib 2 because they wanted to salvage more belongings but the security forces allowed him to go back only after the water level had subsided.
“We just removed whatever we could. We thought the water would not rise this high again,” he said.
Another villager of Kampung Forest, Zulaikah Ali, 23, said her family also chose not to move to the PPS but went to stay at a relative’s house situated on a higher level.
She said villagers were worried about housebreakings, which occurred every time the area was hit by a disaster.
She said her house was not badly affected by the rising water but power supply had been cut off for safety reason since Saturday’s incident.
Zulaikah’s uncle decided to stay put to prevent people from looting the house.
Meanwhile, the number of evacuees in Kota Belud dropped to 139 from 57 families Monday evening from 143 from 58 families Monday morning.
A total of 62 people from 26 families are at SK Pekan, while the remaining victims are at Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan (C) Chung Hwa.
The number of residents in coastal areas evacuated due to the phenomenon rose to 1,506 people from 314 families from 1,483 people from 308 families this morning.
Of the total, 684 evacuees are at one centre in Sandakan, 54 at one centre in Kota Kinabalu and the remaining 768 people are at six centres in Pitas.
