A second wave of flooding in Malaysia's south has forced more than 90,000 people to flee their homes and caused two deaths from water-borne disease, officials and reports said Sunday. The number of people evacuated in Johor state, which borders Singapore, has soared to 94,600, the national flood operations centre said, with more torrential rain forecast to come.

This is higher than for the first round of flooding which hit last month and left 18 dead.

"More people are being evacuated because the rains have not stopped and we are taking preventive measures to get them out first, before floods submerge their villages," said an officer at the centre, who declined to be named.

Rescue teams were using boats to reach remote villages, and power supplies and telecommunications have also been disrupted by the floodwaters.

Torrential rains that have battered the region for the past four days show no sign of letting up, and some 355 relief centres have been set up on higher ground to shelter the huge number of displaced people.

The Meteorological Department forecast heavy continuous rain in Johor for at least three more days, the official Bernama news agency reported Sunday.

The department issued a red alert warning for Johor and parts of central Pahang state. It is the highest of a three-stage warning system, indicating heavy downpours and floods.

Health ministry secretary-general Ismail Merican said flood victims now faced the risk of disease, particularly leptospirosis, which is spread via rat, dog and cattle urine.

The New Straits Times quoted Abdul Ghani Othman, Johor's chief minister, as saying that two flood evacuees had already died of leptospirosis.

"In flood situations things get out of control, especially when it comes to water cleanliness," Ismail told AFP.

Thousands of people were already sheltering in flood evacuation centres in Johor after the first round of flooding, which hit late December and forced 90,000 people to evacuate their homes at the peak of the crisis.

Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said late Friday that the government had not ruled out declaring a state of emergency in Johor if the floods worsened, adding the government would closely monitor and evaluate the situation, Bernama reported.

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