By Nur Ashikin Louis
SERIAN, Sept 27: The general public are advised not to set up their own temporary shelter when their homes are affected by floods.
Sarawak Women, Childhood and Community Wellbeing Development Minister Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah said there are standard operating procedures (SOP) in place in the event of floods.
“This has happened before where they moved to the place they chose. They cannot do this. There’s SOP when facing floods.
“If there is a flood, the KK (village chief) will inform the DO (district officer), the DO will then inform the police, Fire and Rescue Department (Bomba) and others to monitor the situation on the ground to decide if an evacuation is necessary or not.
“If it is necessary, the evacuation order will not come from the KK but it will come from the DO. From there, a temporary evacuation centre (PPS) will be opened,” she said when officiating the Sarawak Disaster PPS Training and Simulation Programme 2022 held at Dewan Serbaguna Ranchan here today.
She further called upon the flood victims to cooperate with the authorities involved in the operation especially in record-keeping.
“For example, there are children who need bottled milk, the parents have to inform the types of bottled milk needed since there could be allergy problems and children of different ages have different milk consumption rates. The same goes to bedridden patients who need diapers.
“So these are considered extra items which are not included in the usual assistance that we provide for flood victims such as bed, pillow and mattress,” she added.
Amongst those present were Bukit Semuja assemblyman John Ilus, Sarawak Social Welfare Department director Noriah Ahmad, Serian Resident Selamat Yati Yanjah and Serian District Officer Lim Hock Meng. — DayakDaily
