NINE schools in Sabah were closed following yesterday’s flooding, and torrential rain is expected to continue until Friday.

Sabah Education Director Maimunah Suhaibul said 3,806 pupils and more than 200 teachers from nine primary schools in Tuaran, Penampang, Kota Belud and Kota Kinabalu were told to stay at home today as the flooding had cut off road links. 

Yesterday, teachers and some 22 pupils from SK Darau in Inanam were held up until 9pm after floodwaters rose in the late afternoon. 

Sabah Meteorological Department officer Elsie Benedict said 135.44mm of rain fell yesterday, compared with 86.8mm on Sunday, causing landslides and cut road links, and displacing 135 people in Penampang, Kota Belud and Papar.

“We are expecting the bad weather to continue until this Friday. The usual rain capture is between 30mm to 50mm. 

“There was a drastic change in wind pattern over Borneo based on our weather model,” she said after the Kota Kinabalu District Disaster Action Committee meeting today. 

Assistant Minister to the Chief Minister Edward Yong Oui Fah warned residents to brace for more bad weather in the coming days. 

“The existing drainage system in the city cannot cope with the sudden surge of rainfall.

“We have checked all the drains, and City Hall contractors reported that the drains were cleared off any debris before the rain started to fall,” he said. 

Continuous rain since Friday disrupted everyday life for 537,000 people in Penampang, Kota Kinabalu, Papar, Tuaran and Kota Belud.

However, Kota Kinabalu acting police chief George Abdul Rakman said there was no need for mass evacuation, as floodwaters had begun to recede.

Civil Defence and the Fire and Rescue Department personnel had been deployed in the affected areas and evacuated 135 residents in Penampang, Papar and Kota Belud. 

More than 20 villages have been inundated by water and 83 people had to be rescued in Kota Belud, five people in Penampang and Papar 47 people. 

“41 people are now placed at a hall in Kota Belud, while five in Penampang had been sent to the houses of their relatives and 47 people had been placed at a hall in Bongawan Papar,” a Civil Defence Force spokesman told The Malaysian Insight. 

Kota Kinabalu Mayor Yeo Boon Hai said City Hall would invoke the emergency order MKN 20 on a mall to allow officers to enter its premises and carry out flood mitigation measures. 

This was done following a viral video of a landslide at retaining wall near the mall last Sunday. 

“We will go in this afternoon and perhaps trim some of the trees and check on their gutters to ensure there will be no flooding in the area,” he said. 

Kota Kinabalu recorded 12 flooded areas, seven landslides, and four damaged infrastructures like roads, streetlights and others. – August 15, 2017.