Damage from Sabah quake costly

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah suffered nearly RM100mil in damage caused by the June 5 Mount Kinabalu earthquake.

The damage following the earthquake and more than 100 aftershocks affected 61 buildings such as schools, hospital and mosque, 22 roads and 22 slopes.

Sabah Special Tasks Minister Datuk Teo Chee Kang told the state assembly sitting here yesterday that losses so far amounted to RM94.8mil.

He said the aftermath of the earthquake also affected about 200 families in Ranau and Kota Belud who suffered after mudslides destroyed their homes, farms and plantations as well as disrupted water supply.

Work to repair the affected buildings are being carried out but it would be a time-consuming process, said Teo, adding that the magnitude of the earthquake was officially recorded as 6.0 on the Richter scale after being initially put at 5.9.

On questions raised about public donations to help quake victims, he said about RM2.7mil was collected by the State Natural Disaster Fund.

Out of that amount, a total of RM421,000 had been allocated to families of those affected by the quake, and for disaster management in Ranau, he said.

He also said three houses in Ranau had been declared unsafe and 136 houses and buildings in Kota Belud were damaged.

“The government will set an appropriate rate for repairs of houses according to the extent of damage as confirmed by the respective district officers,” Teo said.

He said Sabah Parks had also set up an earthquake relief fund to help mountain guides and its staff.

He gave an assurance that all donations received and distributed would be handled carefully to ensure there were no cases of funds being misused.

Sabah Tourism, Culture and Envi­ron­ment minister Datuk Masidi Manjun said many people and orga­nisations had come forward to donate to the Mountain Guides Association.

He said the Umno Welfare Bureau was also contributing RM800 to full-time mountain guides and RM400 for part-time guides every month till September when hopefully the mountain would be reopened to the public.