Thousands evacuated as heavy rain hits Malaysian states
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KUALA LUMPUR – At least five people were killed and thousands were forced to evacuate across two Malaysian states in Borneo after days of heavy rain triggered floods and landslides.
Government data showed more than 700mm of rain fell on parts of Sabah and Sarawak, where Petroliam Nasional (Petronas) operates a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant. The Malaysian Meteorological Department warned that the rain will continue until Jan 31.
The area around Bintulu in Sarawak, which houses a Petronas nine-train LNG complex with a capacity of nearly 30 million metric tonnes per year, is among the hardest-hit in terms of rainfall, according to data from the Department of Irrigation and Drainage.
State-owned Petronas said operations at the plant remain uninterrupted after the severe flooding and that it will continue monitoring the situation closely.
More than 5,000 residents have been evacuated from their homes as at the morning of Jan 30, according to local news reports, which called it the “worst floods in recent years”.
Images and videos circulating on social media showed entire neighbourhoods submerged in muddy water and people swept away by currents or stranded on rooftops. Bloomberg could not independently verify the footage.
Bintulu received nearly 800mm of rain in the last 48 hours, meteorologist Jason Nicholls with commercial forecaster AccuWeather said late on Jan 29.
The region has been pounded by heavy rain for weeks, leaving the ground saturated.
“While it isn’t unusual to get showers and thunderstorms, it is the magnitude of them and the persistence of them that is a little more than we would expect,” he said in an interview.
“The rain doesn’t have anywhere to go because the ground is saturated.”
The immediate forecast shows little let-up from the storms, although their intensity may subside, he added. Bloomberg
