Rising tide forces family of six to sleep in car

SANDAKAN: A family of six who had earlier declined evacuation from a water settlement here finally had to abandon their house and spend the night in a car as a safety precaution after the tide started rising last night.

Riden Abdul Mutalib, 43, said his family feared that the only bridge linking their house to land at Kampung Forest would be submerged when the water level began rising at about 9 pm.

"If the bridge collapses, we will be stranded in our house.

"Many stilt houses in the settlement had collapsed (last Saturday). There is no power supply now," he said when met at the village.

Riden said the family chose not to be evacuated to the relief centre (PPS) at Sekolah Kebangsaan Sungai Anib 2 because they wanted to salvage more belongings but the security forces allowed him to go back only after the water level had subsided.

"We just removed whatever we could. We thought the water would not rise this high again," he said.

Another villager of Kampung Forest, Zulaikah Ali, 23, said her family also chose not to move to the PPS but went to stay at a relative's house situated on a higher level.

She said villagers were worried about housebreakings, which occurred every time the area was hit by a disaster.

She said her house was not badly affected by the rising water but power supply had been cut off for safety reason since Saturday's incident.

Zulaikah's uncle decided to stay put to prevent people from looting the house.

Last Saturday night, some 100 houses in Kampung Forest collapsed after being struck by a king tide.

A total of 684 people from 122 families have been evacuated to the SK Sungai Anib 2 PPK.

-- BERNAMA