Heavy rain, flooding in some areas in Kuching

Heavy rainfall since early today caused some areas around Kuching to be inundated by flood waters and most roads became congested as they were impassable to traffic.

A check revealed that as at 11.30am today, the heavy downpour was still continuing around Kuching and several stalled vehicles were left on the flooded roads.

The check also found that several key places were flooded including the Sarawak General Hospital, Sarawak Contingent Police Headquarters at Jalan Badaruddin, Padungan fire and rescue station, Faculty of Medicine at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Universiti Teknologi Mara Samarahan campus, and areas around Padang Merdeka.

Sarawak Fire and Rescue Department's assistant director of operations Farhan Sufyan Borhan said the department was helping to temporarily move the patients from the ground floor of the hospital to the upper level.

He said since 6am today, the department received at least 17 emergency calls every hour about the floods and they were still working hard to provide assistance.

Farhan said the affected areas included Kampung Selipar Putus, Kampung Tabuan Dayak, Padungan, Batu Lintang, the residential area in Samarahan and several villages in Bau.

Meanwhile, a landslide was reported to occur at KM18 Jalan Serian Tebedu which made the road impassable.

Several villagers who lived around the river banks especially in Kuching and Serian were evacuated, but the total number had yet to be finalised.

- Bernama