Sarawak Latest News

Pak Junoh

Fariza bin Gom holding Pak Junoh’s hat which was found by the rescue team.

Three colleagues watched in horror as a crocodile stealthily swam towards their foreman, grabbed him by the stomach, and dragged him into the placid water of Demak Laut river yesterday.

In the 11.00 am incident, Pak Junoh, a 43-year-old foreman of a sawmill nearby, was fishing with Fariza bin Gom, 31, from Samarahan, Jamadi bin Radat, 20, from Kuching and Sarizak, 18, from Sibuyau when he was attacked.

Relating the ordeal, Fariza, who was in the water with Junoh, said he was even further from the river bank than Junoh when the crocodile attacked.
“Both of us were casting our nets while Jamadi and Sarizak were waiting near the river bank to bring the catch in.

“After the crocodile grabbed Junoh it disappeared, and a moment later, it re-appeared with the latter’s leg flapping in the air. All of us immediately screamed for help,” said Fariza.
Police and 999 were alerted and they arrived promptly to conduct a search for the victim.
Fariza said that because of the economic downturn, his colleagues and he used to do some fishing at Demak Laut river to earn side income.

Junoh’s wife, Ramliebi, 42, who was picking “paku” (jungle fern) near the barrack where they are staying when the incident happened.

The couple have four children aged 21, 18, 13 and 5 years. Two of their children are staying in Pontianak and the other two are with the parents.

At press time, Junoh’s remains were still at large. The search and rescue party has thus far found a hat belonging to Junoh. Fariza said Junoh was wearing a white shirt, blue trousers and a pair of yellow boots at the time of the attack.

Two youth who went to a house at Kim Chu Sin Road, Batu Kawa, to collect debts yesterday ended up with over 60 pellet wounds on their bodies and hands.
Their wounds were inflicted by a 52-year-old man who fired two shots at them when they came a calling at about 7.00 am.

When contacted, Sarawak Head of Crime Investigation Department, SAC 11 Huzir bin Mohamad, confirmed that a man had been arrested for firing at two youth.

“The duo had gone there to collect debts and we are now investigating what sort of debts,” he said.

Police seized a shotgun and a box of cartridges from the house. It is understood that the shotgun was not licensed to the man who fired the shot.

“People should not take the law into their own hands. Even if there are people coming to your house to cause nuisance, you should lodge a police report, not shoot at them,” Huzir said.

According to the house owner, the duo had come a week ago and hurled a bottle into his house.

He claimed that when they showed up again yesterday, they broke his window panes with a brick. It was then that he rushed out and fired two shots at them from a distance.
Meanwhile, the two youth, both aged 23 years, had lodged police reports.

One of them, from Stutong Baru, claimed that he did not know what his friend was up to. When they were having breakfast, his friend received a call. He (friend) then asked him to accompany him to collect money from a “friend”.

The purportedly ignorant victim ended up with over 20 pellets on both his hands and back.
The other youth, from Foochow Road, claimed that the house owner’s son had called him to collect money at about 7.30 am.

He said the two went there and called out the house owner’s son for more than 10 times, but nobody showed up.

As they were about to drive off, the house owner came out, opened the back door of their car and shot them at close range. Both victims have been warded at the hospital.

MIRI: A MASwings Twin Otter aircraft veered off the runway after landing at the Bario airstrip at about 1.00 pm last Tuesday.
Fortunately, all 16 passengers on board MH3434, as well as the pilot and co-pilot, were safe.
The two pilots managed to bring the aircraft, which had taken off from here, to a safe stop on the grass verge.
MASwings Managing Director, Mohd Salleh Ahmad Tabrani, said in a press statement yesterday that the airlines’ engineers were rushed to Bario at 4.45 pm last Tuesday but they found no damage to the aircraft.
He added that the aircraft was given the clearance by the engineers to take off for Miri at about 6.20 pm the same day.
However, the incident forced the airline to cancel four flights involving Miri, Lawas and Marudi. The affected passengers were flown to their respective destinations yesterday.

15 houses in Kpg Sg Bedil Besar go up in smoke leaving 75 people homeless

Seventy-five people were made homeless with only the clothes on their backs after a massive fire destroyed 15 houses at Kampung Sungai Bedil Besar in Petra Jaya here early yesterday evening.

In what was described by some villagers as nothing short of a miracle, there was not a single casualty or even injury in the 5.45pm blaze.

Strong winds coupled with the proximity of the wooden structures caused the fire to spread at an alarming rate and left nearly all the affected villagers with little time to salvage anything from their residences.

THE BLAZE AT ITS HEIGHT: Firemen battle to bring the fire under control.

Fire and Rescue Department operations chief Baharuddin Idris said a total of 47 firefighters from the Tabuan Jaya, Batu Lintang, Padungan and Petra Jaya stations rushed to the scene after receiving a distress call at 5.55pm. The first unit arrived at 6.02pm and took about 45 minutes to bring the blaze under control. He added that such was the extent of the fire that firemen were still battling to extinguish it as of 8.30pm last night.

One of the survivors, 76-year-old Temu Saat, told reporters that the fire began at his daughter’s house from where it rapidly spread to adjacent houses including his own which forced him and his wife to flee.

His daughter Seniah, 47, a Telekom Malaysia employee, said she was on her way back from work when she received a call from a family member informing her of the incident. “Everything is gone. I’m left with nothing,” said Seniah, who still appeared to be in a state of shock and despair to say much.

Her brother, Abdul Malik, whose house was also destroyed, said he was in Satok when he received a call around 6pm about the fire. The 45-year-old driver immediately rushed back to the village and when he saw the massive fire he knew instantly that he had lost everything.

“It was fortunate that my daughter, her husband and their three children were not at home,” he shuddered, adding that he accepted the incident as fate.

News of the fire quickly reached the ears of Assistant Minister in the Chief Minister’s Department Mohd Naroden Majais, Semariang assemblywoman Sharifah Hasidah Sayeed Aman Ghazali as well as Datin Amar Jumaani Tuanku Bujang, who is the wife of Housing Minister Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Openg.

All three were seen directing relief efforts as well as comforting the many tearful survivors at the Kampung Sungai Bedil community hall where the affected families gathered to have their particulars recorded.

Commenting that an incident of this nature and scale was “extremely sad”, Hasidah said aid such as food, clothing and money would be distributed as soon as possible and the survivors would be sheltered at the village surau for the time being.

Meanwhile, the penghulu 58-year-old Morni Abon said: “Some of the survivors would be allowed to occupy several houses in the village which are currently unoccupied, while others would put up with their relatives.”

Total loss in the incident was not immediately known and the cause of the fire is being investigated.

Some 1,300 evacuees from 255 families remained at 23 relief centres in central and northern Sarawak as the flood situation improved Monday.

An official from the state flood operations room said seven relief centres were still open in Miri, six in Sibu and five each in Bintulu and Mukah.

The evacuees included 48 people from eight families in the Skuau Resettlement Area near Sibu whose homes had been affected by landslides and road cave-ins.

“They are being housed at the Skuau community hall. The Public Works Department is working to repair the road where the cave-in occured as well as other damaged roads,” the official said.

She added that the water levels in most of the flooded areas were receding as there was not much rain Monday compared with previous days.

However, she said Kuching, Samarahan, Betong, Mukah and Bintulu divisions remained under a heavy rain warning.

She also said the Miri, Mukah, Bintulu and Sibu as well as state operations rooms were still operating around the clock while others were on standby and ready to be activated at any moment.

Geology experts who are currently in Miri now to study the land structure of Canada Hill will present the initial report on their findings today.

The report would be presented to the Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities, Datuk Peter Chin, who is also the Member of Parliament for Miri, during a briefing session at the Miri Resident office.

Eights experts from different authorities in Kuala Lumpur arrived here yesterday to join the earlier group of three experts led by PWD’s Head of Research and Development, Dr. Che Hassandi Abdullah.

The eight are Selangor Director of Natural Resources and Environment Board, Dr. Zakaria Mohamad, Director of International Research Center on Disaster Prevention (IRCDP) UiTM International Centre, Prof. Dr. Roslan Zainal Abidin, Yang Emirza-Ain Mat Aris and Fadullah Jili Fursani Kemrry (both from IRCDP), and four from Mineral and Geosciences Department of Malaysia - Syed Omar, Zaidi Daud, Mohd Azhar Abdullah and Robin Junang.

Another expert, Deputy Director of NREB Sarawak, Dr. Richard Mani, will be joining them today.

Upon arrival in Kuching, the eight experts were brought to the Miri Division Disaster Operation Room for a briefing conducted by Deputy Miri Resident, Boniface Intang.
Meanwhile, eight houses in Kampung Lereng Bukit, at the foothills of Canada Hill, were destroyed when a landslide occurred at 1.04 pm last January 30. Fortunately, all the 78 affected victims managed to escape in time.

SIBUTI: Nine people escaped death when the vehicles they were in, plunged into a ravine after a road near Kampung Beraya caved in last Saturday evening.

All the victims, including an eight months’ pregnant woman, were reported safe and only suffered minor injuries.

A section of the road at Kampung Beraya, about two kilometres from the main road junction, had caved in when the soil beneath it gave way and created a 15-metre deep and 35-metre wide ravine across the road.

The ravine had cut off the road link to Kampung Beraya. However, there are two alternative roads to reach four other villages in the area.

The nine people were travelling in two vehicles and in separate directions. Six in a 4WD pick-up were coming from the direction of Kampung Beraya while three in a Proton Iswara were going in the direction of the village. Four people in the pick-up truck were relatives of Telang Usan State Assemblyman, Lihan Jok.

The two vehicles approached each other and plunged into the ravine almost at the same time. Luckily, all in the two vehicles survived the plunge with minor injuries. The villagers helped them out of the ravine and sent the injured to Miri Hospital.

“It was dark and we were not able to see clearly ahead of us. We did not know that a section of the road had collapsed. What we had come across were sections of the road submerged by flood water,” said one of the victims, who wished anonymity.

Deputy Chief Minister, Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Dr George Chan Hong Nam, visited the injured victims at the hospital Saturday night after learning of the incident.

Assistant Minister of Infrastructure Development and Communication, Lee Kim Shin, Pujut State Assemblyman Andy Chia, Political Secretary of Ministry of Plantation Industries and Commodities, Sebastian Ting and Miri City Council (MCC) Mayor, Lawrence Lai joined Chan in the visit to hospital.

For those who live in Kuching, or within the region of Sarawak Maybe know about the raining season that we faced now. In Kuching, it's been 2 days (sin 29jan09) non stop heavy rain resulting several area in Kuching such as Batu Kawa and Matang also involving several area within Sarawak river bank.

Picture from : tzuchi.org

The rain clouds are right over Kuching. Although the clouds are moving all the time, the centre is still in Kuching. We hope by this late afternoon (Jan 29) the rain clouds would go off, as far as i concern State Disaster Relief Committee (Sarawak) have warned several residents about the second wave of rain especially Bau, through radio broadcast this morning.

Yesterday, Ive just got info regarding flash flood occurred in several areas here, Bau and Siniawan were the worst affected.

Donation for Flood Victim

The intermittent rain expected in the next couple of days over various parts of Sarawak as strong north easterly winds were still prevailing over coastal areas of the state.

I just got a report from metrological which i get it from my operation office at Kuching Airport, the rainfall yesterday in Kuching is a bit heavier. At 11am(Jan 29), total rainfall is 159 millimetres, hopefully it would not reach up to 200 millimetres, refer to the last total rainfall on Jan 10 was 225 millimetres and Jan 11, 205 millimetres that resulting a massive flood in Kuching city.

The first major flood occurred several days starting Jan 11, heavy rain yesterday was unexpected and the rain clouds were changing very fast, making it hard to predict accurately. As the tide level fortunately is not so high and still have time to drain out the water before the tide.

King tides on Jan 29 were forecast to reach 10.4m, Jan 30, 10.3m and Jan 31, 10.2m. I think Kuching would be saved from floods if the rain stops by this evening (Jan 29). However, we could not confirm this due the weather can changed in any time, no one on earth can predict the accurate weather report!!

State Disaster Relief Committee (Sarawak) chairman also told that SMS report will be send through all mobile operators within the flood area.

Out from Kuching, in Sibu also hit quite badly by flood waters, especially in Selangau. As far as i know now total of nine evacuation centres have been set up throughout the state - one in Miri, three in Bintulu and five in Sibu. The total number of evacuees was 795 people from an estimated 140 families.

Several roads also had been cut off by floods - road to three villages in Suai, Miri; Kg Hilir and Jalan Pekan Lama in Tatau, Bintulu while road to Kpg Pandan in Sebauh and Tubau, Bintulu was not accessible to small vehicles.

Please keep yourself more safer especially people who stay near to landslide-prone areas to be on the alert. Refer to the last landslide incident which was claimed 5 lives this year was becoming more dangerous than FLOODS!!!

So, pa & Ma, grand Pa and Ma, who in Sarawak, please be careful, we cannot predict the accurate report. We only normal people, Its all happened on God Will.. Just Pray and keep away from any danger!]