A big scale high tide phenomenon with massive waves and strong winds is expected to hit the west coast of the peninsula from Oct 17 to 20 and from Nov 14 to 17.

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim said various strategies and deployment of agencies would be mobilised in preparation for the phenomenon as well as floods brought by the Northwest monsoon.

He said the matter was decided at the 1/2016 National Disaster Management Committee meeting, here Tuesday.

"In the meeting chaired by me as deputy chairman, various structural and non-structural measures would be taken immediately to reduce the impact at states at risk such as Selangor, Perak and Kedah.

"The urgent structural measures are repairing damaged barriers and rock bunds and raising their heights," he told reporters after the three-hour meeting at Bangunan Perdana Putra here.

A similar phenomenon of huge waves with strong winds hit the west coast of the peninsula from Sept 16 to 21 which caused floods in several areas in Selangor (Klang, Sabak Bernam and Kuala Selangor), Perak (Bagan Datoh) and Kedah (Kuala Muda).

Therefore, Shahidan said the National Disaster Management Agency (NADMA) would be organising programmes to produce sand bags with several government and private agencies as well as NGOs.

"To reduce the impact of water overflow, long term measures include planting mangroves trees along the coastal areas," he said.

Shahidan said non-structural measures included alerting the people through various channels.

In this regard, he said residents living in high risk areas needed to be ready for evacuation when directed by the authorities before their housing areas were inundated. -- Bernama