Tiring journey: Residents in Kampung Baru Jemari, Mersing, wading through the floods after buying essential food items for their respective families. — Bernama
BATU PAHAT: The police will be ready to deploy additional manpower including from Bukit Aman to deal with the floods, especially in Johor and Sabah, says Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani.
He said for the time being, there was no requirement for additional manpower as the capacity of officers and policemen in the districts affected by the floods was still sufficient.
If the need arises, the police will deploy personnel from the police contingent headquarters first, followed by Bukit Aman.
“So far, only Johor and Sabah are still affected by the floods and the number of evacuees is decreasing,” he told Bernama after attending a flood briefing at Sri Medan police station here yesterday.
Acryl Sani said police had received several new boats to be used during patrols and to assist other agencies in evacuating victims.
“If there is a need for more boats in flood-hit areas, we will apply to the government. However, the assets are still adequate.
“As we can see, the situation in several locations is improving, and we hope there will be no more continuous rains causing floods,” he said.
Meanwhile, the number of flood victims in Johor has continued to increase although three temporary flood relief centres (PPS) were closed yesterday, while the number of victims in Pahang and Sabah dropped in the afternoon.
The Johor state disaster management committee (JPBN) said the number of flood victims housed at PPS increased to 2,660 as at 2pm compared with 2,511 as at 8am on Sunday.
According to the statement, six districts were currently affected by floods and that the PPS in Muar and two PPS in Segamat were closed at 1.15pm.
Thirty PPS were still operating throughout the state.
Mersing recorded the highest number of victims with 975 people, followed by Batu Pahat (736), Kluang (422), Kota Tinggi (420), Segamat (92) and Tangkak (15).
The statement added that Sungai Endau in Mersing remained above the danger level after recording 2.77m in the afternoon.
In Pahang, the number of flood victims in Rompin dropped significantly as only 200 people from 63 families were still at three PPS compared with 314 people from 96 families yesterday morning.
Based on the Social Welfare Department’s portal for information on disasters, the PPS in Kampung Setajam was housing 171 while Kampung Denai has 27 people and only two people were at Balai Raya Kampung Jawa.
The water level recorded at Sungai Keratong in Rompin also showed a drop but remained above the danger level.
In Sabah, there was a slight drop in the number of flood victims as records show that 1,637 people from 642 families were still being sheltered at eight PPS throughout the state compared with 1,664 people from 651 families in the morning.
Its JPBN state secretariat said the most number of victims were in Pitas with 1,363 people from 565 families at four PPS, followed by Paitan with 231 people from 66 families at three PPS and Lahad Datu has 43 victims from 11 families at one PPS.
The statement said the PPS at Kampung Cocos in Paitan was closed yesterday.
