KAPIT: Four houses (three permanent and one temporary) with a total of 36 occupants at Rumah Gawan, Lepong Baleh at Jalan Melekun-Mujong Road near here were damaged in a landslide, recently. The first house belonging to Berry Casher Ak Jarraw has six occupants while the second house belonging to Petrus Anak Jak has eight occupants.
The third house belonging to Kerani Anak Bujang has 11 occupants while the fourth house belonging to Edit Anak Bujang has 11 occupants.
The kitchen areas of the three (permanent) houses belonging to Berry, Petrus and Kerani were partially damaged while a temporary house belonging to Edit was completed buried in the landslide. Fortunately, no casualty was reported in the landslide incident which happened at about 2am.
The Kapit Fire and Rescue Department upon receiving a call on the incident immediately deployed eight personnel lead by Erwandy Tugor and three vehicles to the scene to check and monitor the incident. Meanwhile, for safety reasons, the house owners were not allowed to enter their houses to salvage their belongings. Apart from damaging the four houses, the landslide also caused the road leading to the houses to be flooded.
The District Disaster Committee here headed by Kapit District Officer, Elvis Didit and various government agencies also sprang into action to provide the necessary assistance to the victims. This was the second major landslide in the area.
The first which happened several years ago damaged a few longhouses in Lepong Baleh namely Rumah Gawan, Rumah Jarraw and Rumah Likong (now Rumah Juin).
