KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 6 — The flood situation in the East Coast of the peninsula has worsened with the number of victims evacuated to the relief centres reaching 42,626 this morning from 37,136 last night.

Pahang is the worst affected during this monsoon season with 34,235 evacuees still at the relief centres in eight districts, namely Kuantan, Pekan, Rompin, Maran, Jerantut, Lipis, Temerloh and Bera as at 9am today.

A spokesman for the flood operations room at the state police contingent headquarters said until this morning, several main roads were still closed to traffic after the roads were inundated up to more than a metre, among them at KM28 Jalan Sungai Lembing-Kuantan, KM72 Jalan Kuantan-Segamat and KM62 Jalan Kuantan-Rompin.

“Kuantan still records the highest number of evacuees with 27,391 housed at 48 relief centres,” he told Bernama.

In Rompin, 2,865 flood victims are at 14 relief centres, Pekan 3,218 (at 18 18 relief centres), Maran 49 (six), Jerantut 451 (11), Lipis 33 (two), Temerloh 167 (five) and Bera 61 (five), the latest to be affected with the victims evacuated at 6am today. 

In Terengganu, the number of flood victims remained at 6,052 from 1,559 families since last night.

According to the National Security Council's (MKN) portal, the affected areas in Terengganu are Kemaman, Dungun, Setiu, Marang and Hulu Terengganu.

As at 8am today, Kemaman recorded 2,372 flood evacuees from 595 families, Dungun 2,668 (670 families), Hulu Terengganu 844 (242 families), Setiu 99 (32 families) and Marang 63 (18 families).

The 82 flood relief centres still operating comprise 31 in Kemaman, 29 in Dungun, 13 in Hulu Terengganu and four each in Marang and Setiu.

In Melaka, Sungai Kesang which overflowed, forcing 25 villagers from Kampung Parit Penghulu in Sungai Rambai, Jasin to be evacuated to a relief centre on Wednesday, is now below the alert level.

Melaka MKN assistant secretary, Major Jafri Mohamed said that as at 9.30am today, the victims from five families were still housed at Sekolah Kebangsaan Parit Penghulu.

 “As a precautionary measure, they are not allowed to go home yet due to the overcast skies today,” he said, adding that the water level in Sungai Kesang was now at 3.04 metres. — Bernama