Flood situation worsens in Beaufort

KOTA KINABALU: The flood situation in southwestern Sabah worsened following overnight rains and high tide with more people being evacuated in flood-prone Beaufort and parts of Tenom, Sipitang and Papar.

Nearly a thousand people were evacuated as weather conditions remained bad early on Wednesday) though officials expect water levels to drop with the receding sea tide.

Sipitang became the latest district to be hit with some 78 people in low-lying kampungs evacuated while river currents amid a heavy downpour knocked down a wooden customs jetty in the town area.

Sipitang police chief Deputy Supt Mustafa Osma said that the situation was improving as the floods waters were flowing out to sea with the receding tides.

“The evacuated people might be heading back home later today,’’ he said, adding that police and other agencies were monitoring the situation in Sipitang.

When contacted, neighbouring Beaufort district officer Mohd Shaid Othman said that some 100 more people were being evacuated overnight in the low lying villagers as there were little signs of the weather improving.

“As of now, we have 800 people in evacuation centres in Beaufort and Membakut and more are coming in,’’ he said, adding that the Padas river remains at danger level.

At least a dozen schools remained closed in the affected areas and several roads mainly to the kampungs were impassable for light traffic while businesses in smaller towns of Bongowan and Membakut that hit by floods remained close.