CM says regulating flow of incoming tide saved the day for Kuching in the face of heavy rain, high water
Adenan (seated centre) chairing the press conference at the State Operations Room at Wisma Bapa Malaysia in Petra Jaya yesterday.
KUCHING: Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Adenan Satem said the Sarawak River Barrage has proven to be effective in preventing massive floods in Kuching.
Without the barrage helping to control the flow of the incoming tide, Kuching would be badly affected, he pointed out.
“The situation is under control. In the next week or so we expect to see some rain but the situation will not be as bad as a few days ago. We hope we will have less rain and that the barrage is holding.
“If the barrage had not been there we will be in the pits as because of it we can control the flow of water,” he told a press conference at the State Operations Room at Wisma Bapa Malaysia here yesterday.
Adenan said some of the 5,600 evacuees had returned right after flood waters receded at their homes.
Affected roads are now passable and the state Public Works Department would see to it that collapsed roads are
repaired, should there be any.
Apart from food, clothing and other necessities, evacuees may also be provided with financial aid.
“We will also consider that (financial aid) later on. Enough that they are getting rescued first,” he said when responding to a suggestion that some evacuees might not be genuine.
Adenan said he could not deny that some people might be capitalising on the situation but he believed staff at the evacuation centres could control the situation.
He advised evacuees to register at the official evacuation or flood relief centres.
On a more positive note, Adenan said Miri and Bintulu were experiencing dry weather.
Others at the press conference were State Secretary Tan Sri Datuk Amar Morshidi Abdul Ghani and his deputy Datu Misnu Taha.
When met later, state Fire and Rescue Department director Nor Hisham Mohammad said they expected chiefs of the affected villages to be honest when helping rescue teams register evacuees.
He warned that evacuees would not get the financial aid if they were found to have cheated.
“Integrity lies on the village chiefs. They should tell us who are genuine and who are not. We cannot be probing house to house,” he said.
It was said that each registered household would get RM500 in welfare financial aid.
According to the Sarawak Almanac, the king tide will be at its highest at 6.2 metres around 7pm today (Feb 11). It will be at 6.1 metres around 8pm tomorrow (Feb 12) and 5.9 metres around 8.30pm on Saturday and at 5.6 metres around 9pm on Sunday.
However these figures may be conservative and are based on projections made late last year. Yesterday morning, Nor Hisham predicted that the king tide will be the highest at 10 metres during any day depending on the weather.
The torrential rain coupled with the king tide inundated Kuching and Bau on Chinese New Year eve. Then the king tide was almost 6 metres high at around 4.30pm.
Even some parts of Serian and Samarahan were not spared by the flood.
According to State Civil Defence Department (JPAM), the number of evacuees as at 4pm yesterday increased to 5,533 from 1,484 families while the number of flood relief centres was 27 – 20 in Kuching, five in Bau and two in Serian.
The centre that recorded the highest number of evacuees was Kuching Civic Centre with 753 persons from 200 families while the lowest was at Surau Darul Idayah with eight victims from three families.