Malaysia's south has been hit by a second wave of flooding, with two days of downpours forcing more than 20,000 people to flee their homes, officials said today.

"It's quite a gloomy morning," said Che Moin Umar, chief of the Crisis and Disaster Management Directorate.

"We have a total number of victims evacuated at 20,051," he told AFP.

Che Moin said that most of Johor was affected, and that he expected more evacuations to take place over the weekend, with forecasts of rain.

"People are taking very fast action to evacuate themselves ... That is a good step," he said.

Che Moin said that most of Johor was affected, and that he expected more evacuations to take place today. The situation is tipped to worsen with rain forecast to continue over the weekend.

More than 2,000 people were already sheltering in flood evacuation centres in Johor in the aftermath of the first round of flooding which hit late last month, forcing 90,000 to evacuate their homes at the peak of the crisis.

Since then rains have hit hit the country's north and its eastern states on Borneo island.

Seventeen people have been killed so far in the floods - the worst in decades -caused by unseasonally heavy rain.

Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi yesterday said that initial estimates of the damages from the disaster had reached more than RM100 million.