In the incident which began at 5.15pm, 27 houses were damaged in Kampung Tengah; 26 in Kampung Padang Lalang; 17 in Kampung Seratus; and five in Kampung Baru.

Kampung Tengah’s Village Development and Security Committee chairman, Aziz@Mohamad Jusoh said the incident began with continuous lightning, followed by a hailstorm lasting 20 minutes.

He said the hailstones were as large as 20-sen coins, while the strong winds that followed uprooted many trees.

“The heavy storm also disrupted electricity supply to the houses,” he told Bernama adding that it also damaged and blew away the roofs of several houses.

Meanwhile, Kemaman district officer, Rosman Roslan said besides houses, a few public facilities were also damaged, including the JKKK and study hall, as well as health quarters.

“For houses owned by the Felda settlers, these were already insured, and for the houses without insurance, the state government will give some assistance for repair works.

“However, for immediate action, we have asked Felda to also repair the houses,” he said adding that the particulars of all the victims were being collected.

He said repair works had already started since this evening, and was expected to be completed soon.