Cabanatuan City starts cleaning up mud after worst flood in years
CABANATUAN CITY, Philippines — Flood waters from heavy rains dumped by now Tropical Storm Lando (international name Koppu) may have subsided in parts of Cabanatuan, the most populous city in Nueva Ecija province, on Tuesday, but some villages and towns remained under water.
In an aerial inspection by Raha Pure Force, a private volunteer group, where INQUIRER.net team was embedded, the villages of Aduas, Sumacab in Cabanatuan City was still underwater.
Residents along the main highways have also started cleaning up their houses.
The continuous rains when Lando was at its peak as a typhoon over the weekend caused massive flooding in the city. But as of Tuesday, most of the floodwaters were reduced to mud.
Elenita Romero, 62, said she had never seen so much water in her 20 years of residence in San Josef village in Cabanatuan City.
“Itinataas ko lang yung damit. Dumating yung tubig. Nalunod yung TV, DVD, Gasul….walang paglulutuan…Yung kape nalunod pa kaya ang iniinom lang namin pinainit na tubig,” she said.
(I was lifting our clothes when the water rushed in, soaking the TV, DVD, gasul. We have no means to cook our food. Even the coffee is soaked so we just boil water to drink.)
She said that the floodwaters were neck-deep on Monday that they had to go the roof.
“Humihingi kami ng rescue pero hindi kami na rescue. Abala yung kapitan at yung barangay tanod namin kaya nakulong kami sa loob ng bahay,” she said.
(We asked for rescue but the village captain and watchmen were busy. We got stuck inside our house.)
Lucena Mariano, 71, resident of San Josef said she was not able to save their belongings.
“Wala akong nailigtas….Sumakay ako sa banyera tumaob pa,” she said.
Nigel Lontoc, director of Office of Civil Defense in Central Luzon, said that the towns of Jaen, Sta. Rosa and Cabiao were still submerged, however.
A report from OCD in Central Luzon said that there are 59,981 persons sheltered in evacuation centers. Most of these are from Cabanatuan City with 20,047 persons.
Storm signal in Nueva Ecija was lifted on Tuesday morning. TVJ
