A picture of the Sarawak river. The state is bracing for its major flood in five years after water levels in three of its major rivers rose above the 'alert’ level. – Wikimedia Commons pic, January 17, 2015.Sarawak is bracing for its first major flood in five years after three days of rain caused the water level of three major rivers to rise pass the “alert" level.The authorities have issued warnings to people in areas around the rivers Sarawak Kiri in Kuching; Batang Sadong in Serian; and Sg Balingian to be alert and ready for possible evacuation.The water level of the Sarawak Kiri river at Kampung Nelayan, about 22km from Kuching, at noon today was 3.8m, or 0.8m above its alert level.The normal level, said the website of the Drainage and Irrigation Department, is 1.85m with the danger level at 5m.The website said a warning for the residents of Kampung Nelayan to evacuate would be made when the level reaches 4.5m.At Batu Kitang, a few kilometres down the Sarawak Kiri river, the water level at 2pm was recorded at 3.82m, 0.82 above the alert level.Krusin, on the Batang Sadong in Serian, saw the water level breach the alert level of 15.21m at 2pm.Serian, a market garden town, is 60km from Kuching city.At Nanga Lemai in Balingian, the water level of the Sg Balingian was 3.34m “and rising" at 10am.The alert level of the river is at 2.8m.The last time Sarawak was hit by a major flood was in 2012. The gold mining town of Bau, close to the head waters of the Sarawak river, was hit hard. Settlements between Bau and Kuching along the river were also inundated.Sarawak's Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Alfred Jabu, in a briefing for media last week, said some 3,400 personnel from the military, police, Fire and Rescue Department, Civil Defence Department, Health Ministry, Public Works Department and Sarawak Rivers’ Board had been placed on standby to handle any flood in the state.Jabu, who also chairs the State Disaster Management Committee, said 239 lorries, 178 four-wheel-drive vehicles, 298 boats, three helicopters, one Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) CN235 aircraft and three jet skis had been requisitioned and placed at the disposal of the various agencies.Also, the Social Welfare Department had stocked its 21 forward operating bases with enough food and drinking water for distribution to flooded areas. – January 17, 2015.
ไม่มีความคิดเห็น:
แสดงความคิดเห็น