Flood death toll rises to 7, number of evacuees drops to 106,000

 

As of 7pm, a total of 106,424 flood victims from 31,634 families were being sheltered at 448 relief centres nationwide. (Bernama pic)

PETALING JAYA: 

The death toll from the floods across the country now stands at seven after a motorcyclist was found drowned at an oil palm plantation in Dungun, Terengganu, today.

The body of Wan Firdaus Wan Nasir, 36, was found at 2.15pm, 10m from where his motorcycle was found, Bernama reported.

He was reported missing after he attempted to wade through a heavily flooded road yesterday before being swept away by strong currents.

As of 7pm, a total of 106,424 flood victims from 31,634 families were being sheltered at 448 relief centres nationwide.

This is an improvement compared with the 138,052 evacuees this morning.

Kelantan is the worst-hit state with 66,418 victims, followed by Terengganu (29,146), Kedah (7,419), Pahang (1,697), Johor (961), Perak (553), Melaka (161) and Perlis (69).

There are no more flood evacuees in Negeri Sembilan following the closure of the only relief centre that was operating as of 4pm. The centre had 74 evacuees previously.

Separately, higher education minister Zambry Abdul Kadir said universities affected by the floods have been given the flexibility to hold their classes online.

It was reported last week that 3,029 students at public universities were affected by the floods. They were from Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin and Universiti Malaysia Kelantan. Several polytechnics were also hit by floods. - FMT