Wednesday October 29, 2008
SOS for food, fuel in Baram
By STEPHEN THEN
MIRI: Interior folks stranded due to floodwaters in remote settlements in the Baram district in northern Sarawak are appealing urgently for food and fuel.
Some 15,000 people from 27 remote longhouses and riverine settlements in the vast district are unable to leave their settlements as flood waters had severed all forms of land links.
Under water: Houses partially submerged in floodwaters in Limbang yesterday. “Our flood operations centre here has received their appeals for help.
“The latest information we have gathered from the ground is that between 10,000 and 15,000 people are affected by floodwaters,” said Baram district officer Joseph Balayong, who is based in Marudi town, some 200km inland from Miri City.
He said these folks were mostly those living downstream along the Baram River.
“The rain in the interior mountain regions had caused the river and its tributaries to overflow their banks.
“Our operations room are now in the midst of arranging food to be deployed to those settlements needing emergency aid.
“As for the fuel, we ourselves in the operations centre are very short of supply.
“Our operations centre had appealed for immediate fuel aid from the Miri Resident’s Office so that our flood relief teams will have enough fuel to reach the affected areas,” he said.
“There may not be enough fuel to distribute to those villagers stranded in the deep interior.
“I hope the weather will not worsen,” Balayong told The Star yesterday.
Balayong said that the affected residents had said that they did not want to be evacuated from their settlements as they believed that the flood waters would recede soon.
“The weather in Marudi had improved, but the weather in the interiors is still unpredictable,” he added.
As for Marudi town, he said several areas were still knee-deep in floodwaters and the
fuel shortage had badly disrupted social and economic activities.
The Miri Resident’s Office here had sought additional fuel stocks from suppliers here.
Elsewhere in northern Sarawak, the floods also created havoc in Limbang Division, flooding villages and roads in about a metre of water in Limbang town near the border with Brunei.
However in Miri City, the weather had improved considerably yesterday.
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