‘King tide’ evacuees rise to 651 in Sabah

KOTA KINABALU: The number of victims affected by the king tide phenomenon has risen to 651 people from coastal villagers in three Sabah districts as of 8am on Saturday (Dec 24).

In a statement, the Sabah Natural Disaster Management Committee secretariat said that the people evacuated involved 160 families living on coastal villages in Sabah's northern Pitas district, Kota Belud and Kota Kinabalu.

In Pitas, a total of 528 victims from 123 families were recorded, Kota Belud district recorded 78 victims from 23 families while there were 45 victims from 14 families in Kota Kinabalu.

Due to high tides over the past three days, several houses collapsed in Tanjung Aru Baru water village as well as Kampung Pondo in Pulau Gaya here.

The disaster management committee said that there were eight temporary shelters set up for the victims in the respective districts.

The high tide phenomenon was expected to continue until the end of the month.

The phenomenon coupled with strong and high waves battered wooden stilt houses over the past few days.