KUALA LUMPUR: More than 12,000 Fire and Rescue Department personnel are ready to be deployed to flood-prone areas following the start of the monsoon season.

       Department director-general Datuk Seri Mohammad Hamdan Wahid said this included areas hit by flash floods, mud floods and landslides.

       He said about 1,000 assets were also ready to be mobilised to flood and natural disaster hotspots, based on information provided by agencies such as the Malaysian Meteorological Department.

       “The information includes the rainfall distribution in several areas, the high tide phenomenon and the monsoon season,” he said yesterday.

       Mohammad Hamdan said the preparations also involved 324 stations and 16 operations centres nationwide.

       On the recent floods in several villages and residential areas around Gunung Jerai, he said the incident was caused by unusual amount of rainfall in states such as Kedah, Perak, Penang and Selangor.

       “Our department is now focusing on efforts to locate the victims who were swept away by floods in Kedah,” he said.

       On Aug 18, several villages and residential areas around Gunung Jerai in the state were hit by floods believed to have been caused by water surges from the waterfall areas at the foot of the mountain. — Bernama