TUGUEGARAO CITY, Cagayan Valley -- Three people drowned as floods caused by continuous rains since Tuesday swamped houses in low-lying villages in the province.

Thousands of villagers fled their homes as the swollen Cagayan River and its tributaries threatened to flood this city on Saturday.

The body of one of the drowning victims, Ama Cawilan, was recovered by rescuers on Friday night. Cawilan reportedly refused to leave his house that was swept away by rampaging floodwaters in a village here.

The two other victims remained unidentified.

Water from the Cagayan River also partly flooded the towns of Amulung, Solana, Enrile, Lallo, Alcala, and Camalaniugan. Two landslides occurred in Gattaran and Penablanca towns but there were no reports of casualties, police said.

Tuguegarao Mayor Delfin Ting called for a special meeting of the city council to decide whether or not to declare a state of calamity.

Governor Alvaro Antonio directed the province's social welfare administration to send food packs to the affected towns.

Transportation to and from the province was disrupted by flooded highways. Unharvested palay and farm crops were damaged and hundreds of work animals were lost in farms, mostly located near the Cagayan River bank.

Four members of a family who were trapped in their farm house near the Cagayan River in Linao village here were saved by a rescue team.

In Isabela, farm crops worth at least P35 million were destroyed as rains since Monday flooded low-lying villages.

Initial reports said 2,964 hectares of rice farms and 1,752 hectares of corn farms were destroyed in Ilagan, Cabagan, Tumauini, Delfin Albano, Benito Soliven, and Roxas towns.

Ilagan suffered the most with P16.5 million in crops damaged or lost, reports said.

At least 6,000 villagers crowd eight evacuation sites in the province as Ilagan has at least 37 low-lying villages still submerged in murky water.

Ilagan Mayor Josemarie Diaz and the town council have declared Ilagan under a state of calamity to facilitate the use of calamity funds to help the victims. "We have been doing 24-hour rescue and relief operations to avoid any disaster," Diaz said.

Reports from the Ilagan municipal disaster coordinating council said landslides were recorded in San Felipe and Bintacan villages but these were cleared with the help of Army soldiers and other volunteers.

At least 2,500 relief bags were given to affected villagers on Friday and 2,500 more bags were distributed on Saturday.

Despite the floods, Magat Dam officials said there was no cause for alarm as water in the dam was still way below the critical level.