Riden Abdul Mutalib, 43, said his family feared that the only bridge linking their house to land at Kampung Forest would be submerged when the water level began rising at 9pm.

“If the bridge collapsed, we would be stranded in our house.

“Many stilt houses in the settlement had collapsed on Saturday night. There is no power supply now,” he said when met at the village.

Riden said the family chose not to be evacuated to the relief centre (PPS) at Sekolah Kebangsaan Sungai Anib 2 because they wanted to salvage more belongings. The security forces allowed him to go back only after the water level had subsided.

“We just removed whatever we could. We thought the water would not rise this high again,” he said.

Another villager of Kampung Forest, Zulaikah Ali, 23, said her family also chose not to move to the PPS but went to stay at a relative’s house situated on a higher level.

She said villagers were worried about housebreakings, which occurred every time the area was hit by a disaster.

She said her house was not badly affected by the rising water but power supply had been cut off for safety reasons since the incident on Saturday.

Zulaikah’s uncle decided to stay put to prevent people looting the house.

Since Saturday night, some 100 houses in Kampung Forest have collapsed after being struck by a king tide.

Sandakan district police chief Abdul Fuad Abdul Malek said 70 stilt houses collapsed first. This was followed by another 38, bringing the total to 108.

A total of 684 people from 122 families have been evacuated to the PPS at SK Sungai Anib 2.