State education director Mistirine Radin said three of the schools – SMK St Paul, SK Lago and SK Bukau – were in Beaufort.

Four schools – SK Gumisi, SK Ladong Sapong, SJKC Yuk Syn and SK Inubai – are in Tenom, while the other is SK Tombovo in Putatan, Penampang.

“All the schools are temporarily closed and it involves a total of 204 teachers and 2,425 students,” she said in a statement today.

She said students will continue with their lessons through the home-based learning and teaching (PdPR) method until the situation improved and it was safe for them to return to school.

Yesterday, Petagas assemblyman Awang Ahmad Sah had said flash floods in Putatan were not a new phenomenon as the schools, including SK Tombovo, faced the same problem each time it rained continuously due to the clogged drainage system.

“The government needs to find short-term measures to prevent flash floods from occurring.

“The ditches behind the schools are the cause of flash floods, so these ditches need to be dug deeper so that they do not fill up quickly and overflow causing flash floods in the school areas,” he said in a statement.

Awang Ahmad, who is also Warisan information chief, said this when commenting on photos and videos of the schools that went viral on social media after the flash floods caused difficulties for teachers and students.

He also said he understood the flash floods situation in the area would come to an end when the Putatan Phase 3 flood mitigation project, valued at more than RM400 million, is completed.

He did not deny that flash floods occurred in several villages in the district due to the construction work for a sewerage scheme project, which has been going on for the past few months.

He said this blocked the flow of water to Sungai Lembising and, subsequently, to the sea.

The Sabah State Disaster Management Committee said 49 villages in Beaufort and Tenom were flooded following several hours of heavy rain.

“Heavy rain which started about 1.30pm yesterday lasted until midnight. This caused the water level in Sungai Padas and Sungai Pegalan to rise.”

It said the weather in Beaufort this morning was fine, while it was cloudy in Tenom.

No evacuation facilities had been opened in Beaufort, but four such centres have been opened in Tenom as a precautionary measure.
 
The floods also caused several roads to be under water. A landslide occurred at Km36.2 Jalan Tenom Kuala Tomani, in the Tenom district.