KOTA KINABALU: Res­id­ents of Kam­pung Ram­payan Laut, here, described Sat­urday’s flash flood as the worst in more than 50 years, after water levels rose rap­idly to waist height and inund­ated their homes.

Jali­nah Md Jali, 62, said the flood­wa­ter came so quickly that many people could not save their belong­ings.

“The water usu­ally does not enter the house. But yes­ter­day (Sat­urday), it reached waist height and flooded our homes,” she said while clear­ing mud and water from the liv­ing room.

Jali­nah said the fur­niture and elec­trical items such as refri­ger­at­ors were dam­aged. “I have lived here for more than 60 years and have never seen a flood this severe.”

She hopes that local rep­res­ent­at­ives and agen­cies would find long-term solu­tions to the flood issue. Jali Jawi, 52, said Sat­urday’s flood was much severe than usual.

He said the water level began rising around 5.30pm on Sat­urday and star­ted reced­ing early yes­ter­day.

A check by Bernama found that flood­wa­ters had receded to ankle level from waist level, with most of the area covered in thick mud. Res­id­ents were busy clean­ing their homes and dry­ing salvaged items.

The Sabah Dis­aster Man­age­ment Com­mit­tee said the num­ber of flood vic­tims rose from 282 on Sat­urday to 495 yes­ter­day morn­ing, with all of them shel­ter­ing at two centres.

In Kota Kin­abalu, 180 vic­tims from 46 fam­il­ies are placed at the Al-Munir Mosque Hall in Kam­pung Darau, while in Beaufort, 315 vic­tims from 113 fam­il­ies are at the Selagon Hall Per­man­ent Evac­u­ation Centre.