Floodwaters rise in Johor, more villagers evacuated

Hamdan Raja Abdullah, The Star 13 Nov 07;

MUAR: More villagers in the flood-hit areas in Sungai Balang have been evacuated to the SM Pekan Baru relief centre after floodwaters continued to rise late Monday.

District officer Abdul Rahman Jaafar said the centre, which housed 216 people from 49 families on Monday, now had 324 victims from a total of 70 families.

He said although the weather improved late Monday, the high tides caused floods in more homes as the water could not flow into the Malacca Strait.

“It is difficult to predict the weather now as it can change suddenly from being sunny in the day to a thunderstorm at night.

“This has been the pattern for the past several days, hot and sunny during the day but heavy rain at night,” he said Tuesday.

At the same time, spring tides in the sea for the past week and the high tidal level stopped the water from flowing into the sea.

A visit to the villages on Tuesday showed many houses in Kampung Sarang Buaya Laut were still under 0.2m of floodwater but the water began to recede in the afternoon.

Meanwhile, Muar MP Razali Ibrahim rushed some RM4,200 worth of emergency aid, including rice, sardines, milk, flour and sugar, for distribution to victims.

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