The death toll from floods in Malaysia has risen to eight with the death of an Indonesian worker, while the search for a missing youth continues, police said today.

Police in Kluang district in the southern Johor state identified the latest victim as Abdul Wahid, 29, from Semerang, Indonesia. His body was found near a palm oil estate, the official Bernama news agency said.

Security officials are continuing their search for a 17-year-old boy who is feared to drowned. He was reported missing a few days ago by his family.

Flood waters in most affected areas have subsided but it continues to rain with many displaced people returning to their damaged homes.

However police in Johor said five relief centres had reopened in the state capital Johor Baharu today amid fears of fresh flooding, although the number of evacuees across Malaysia had fallen to 47,481.
"Five centres have been reopened. It is just a precautionary measure. It is raining and people are worried. Some people are coming back," a spokesman told AFP.

Loose crocodiles

The Malaysian Meteorological Department said the heavy rainfall that began on Dec 17 was due to intense winds sweeping across the South China Sea.

Razali Yahya, chief inspector in Johor's Kota Tinggi district told AFP that police and wildlife department officials were tracking down crocodiles and were bracing for the worst amid continued rain in the last 14 hours.

"Many of the relief centres have been closed but there has been continued rain since midnight. We are afraid the situation may reverse. We are bracing for the worse now," he said.

Ishak Abu Bakar, local village chief earlier said between 15 and 20 crocodiles were believed to have escaped from a farm after it was flooded, according to a newspaper report.

Victims now face a lack of piped water and months without electricity, officials said Monday.

Insufficient compensation

"I just returned home today (Tuesday) after being holed up for a week at a relief centre. But there is no water to clean the house filled with mud and dirt," Salwah Atan, 45, who lives in Anjung Batu Dalam Village, Muar, told AFP.

"We want to get on with our lives. Please give us water as soon as possible," she said.

Salwah estimated her losses to be about RM20,000 but she had only received RM150 from the government.

"What can we do with this small amount of money? All my household electrical items have been damaged. I am sad," she said.

Salwah attributed to the flash foods in Johor, the worst she could remember, to exploitation of the environment and poor development planning.

"The environment is being destroyed and development lacks proper planning," she said.

Rare floods

S Subramaniam, government lawmaker in Segamat said authorities have embarked on an intensive clean-up of the town.

"There is some 200,000 tons of rubbish we need to remove. We do not want to promote the spread of diseases," he told AFP.

Subramaniam defended criticisms against poor urban planning for cause of the floods, saying: "It is one in 50 years. It (the floods) is unnatural. We can plan but not for such rare floods."

The meteorological department Tuesday said Johor and coastal parts of Pahang will experience rain until the end of the month.