JMG task force detects 47 landslides in Gunung Jerai

ALOR SETAR (Aug 26): Forty seven landslides were detected at several locations on the slopes and peak of Gunung Jerai by the Department of Mineral and Geoscience (JMG) Geological Disaster Task Force after the mudflow phenomenon at the mountain last week.

Kedah, Perlis and Penang JMG director, Abdullah Sulaiman said the landslides of various magnitudes were found from mapping using ‘unmanned aerial vehicle’ (UAV) or drone in the targetted areas apart from monitoring by the team at the identified locations.

“As at yesterday, our task force has identified 47 landslips in Gunung Jerai with 25 occurring at Titi Hayun, 10 in Batu Hampar and another 10 were found on the route to the mountain peak while two more were discovered Tanjung Jaga and Lembah Bujang.

“So If we could imagine, a large portion of the incidents or landslide locations were found in Titi Hayun and Batu Hampar in Yan district. Both major and minor landslips had occurred,” he said when met by reporters here today.

He was also asked on the development of the study and investigation of JMG Geological Disaster Task Force on the cause as well as risk assessment on the disaster on Aug 18.  

Abdullah said most of the landslides found were major with sizes of between 10 to 50 metres wide apart from minor slips of between two to five metres detected.

Elaborating further, he said the latest finding is very important for the team to understand and get the actual picture on the mountain and to draw comprehensive conclusions on the geological disaster.  

“We will come out with maps, locations and so on and what we see as most important is called disaster risk reduction or DRR, as we do not know when the disaster would occur again, but we know the risks could be reduced,” he said.   

In the floods following the mudflow phenomenon in the evening of Aug 18, six people lost their lives and about 800 houses were affected in Yan district with 200 more in Merbok in Kuala Muda district.

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