SANDAKAN: The Sandakan District Disaster Management Committee (JPBD) on Wednesday morning declared the district a landslide disaster area.
Its chairman Walter Kenson, who is also Sandakan Municipal Council president, said that the declaration, made at 10am, was based on reports from the committee's field agencies, following inspections at the landslide site and Block 10 building at Lebuh Empat in the town centre, here.
"For the time being, the affected area is unsafe for occupation until further inspections related to the landslide are carried out and the area is confirmed safe to inhabit," he said in a statement Wednesday.
Meanwhile, he said a temporary relief centre (PPS) was also opened at the Sandakan Community Hall, at noon Wednesday.
Earlier it was reported that an elderly man, Agustine Frederick J. Lingam, 76, died after being buried in a landslide behind a hotel in Sandakan town, while attempting to start the hotel's generator.
Prior to the incident, heavy rain and a power outage at the hotel had occurred, prompting the victim to go out to start the generator. - Bernama
