More people evacuated due to floods in Malaysia’s Johor

People evacuating from Segamat in Johor on Jan 4, 2022. | PHOTO: THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK

KUALA LUMPUR – Flood victims in Malaysia’s southern Johor state had little respite on Tuesday even though officials forecast good weather was on the way.

Rising waters forced 5,362 people in Johor to evacuate and take shelter in temporary relief centers.

Segamat district, about two-and-a-half hours’ drive north from the Johor capital of Johor Baru, was the worst hit with a video on Twitter showing an entire village inundated.

Police rescued 14 factory workers left stranded on Monday night by the rising waters, said a Facebook post by the Royal Malaysia Police.

Six other states – Pahang, Negeri Sembilan, Sabah, Melaka, Selangor and Terengganu – have also been hit by the flooding with nearly 13,000 people displaced.

Riza Molinda posted a video on Facebook on Tuesday of her house in Segamat after flood waters had receded.

“I am home. Thank God. Cleaning session. I can only look at it,” she wrote.

The Cabinet is meeting on Wednesday to discuss the situation as post-flood clean-up operations continued in areas hit initially by the first bout of incessant rain in mid-December.

Stallholder Chai Foong Mei, 52, from Taman Sri Muda, Selangor, said her ground-floor flat was still being restored more than two weeks after it was swamped by 3.6m-high flood waters on Dec 18.

“My home rebuilding is in progress with the help from the neighborhood and non-governmental organizations,” she told The Straits Times.