No tsunami warning issued for Malaysian district inundated by floods

Malaysian authorities did not issue a tsunami warning for the eastern state of Sarawak in January 2025, as claimed in social media posts that shared clips of flooding in the region. While a minor earthquake struck off the coast of neighbouring Sabah state, there was no tsunami warning. The flooding shown in the shared clips was caused by torrential rain that drenched Sarawak's Bintulu district.

"Hopefully everything goes well for the students in UPM Bintulu, a tsunami warning has been issued. Hoping the water will recede soon and things will go back to normal," read a Malay-language Facebook post on January 29. 

The post includes a compilation of clips showing flooding at a building at the University Putra Malaysia (UPM) campus in Bintulu, in the eastern state of Sarawak (archived link).

The university posted about the damage caused by the flooding on its Facebook page on February 6 (archived link).

Image

Screenshot of the false Facebook post, captured on February 10, 2025

Claims that a tsunami warning was issued also circulated in similar Facebook posts on January 29 here and here.

But Malaysian authorities did not issue a tsunami warning for Bintulu.

While Malaysia's meteorological department recorded a "weak" earthquake off the coast of Ranau in the neighbouring Sabah state on January 29, it did not also issue a tsunami warning (archived link). 

If a tsunami were detected, an early warning system developed by the department after the deadly 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami would have sent alerts to mobile phones, broadcast the warning on radio and television and also blasted warnings around coastal areas (archived here, here and here).

The department did issue an advisory for continuous rain in Bintulu for three days until January 31 (archived link).

According to an article in The Star newspaper, flooding in Bintulu caused by the rain saw water levels nearly reach the second floor of buildings in residential areas (archived link).

Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Tiong King Sing was quoted as saying flaws in Bintulu's drainage system had prevented the discharge of excess water from the Sungai Sibiew river, and strong currents complicated rescue operations.

Malaysia's National Disaster Management Agency said on February 6 that close to 1,900 flood victims in Bintulu had been moved to temporary relief centres (archived link).