DAET, CAMARINES NORTE—The first time residents saw anything similar to the flash floods here on Sunday, it was at the height of Typhoon “Rosing” in 1995, which left 936 dead.

But there was neither typhoon nor storm that Sunday; the continuous heavy rains were brought only by the tail end of a cold front. As many as 11,147 families have been displaced.

“We blame it on the unabated logging in the mountains of our province,” Medel Camara, registrar of Camarines Norte College, said of the flash floods that swamped seven towns—Mercedes, Talisay, Vinzons, Labo, Basud, San Vicente and Daet.

Camara said raging waters from the nearby Labo River had inundated the private school of 1,300 students up to six feet deep and left in its wake silt and mud two feet high.

Classes may resume only next week, he said.

Residents of Vinzons, Talisay and Labo continued to fear for their lives and blamed the denuded mountains for their woes of the past days.

In Talisay, members of the family of Manuel Baytan, 70, kept religious watch over the river’s water level.

The Baytans, all living beside the river, said they were all packed and were prepared to return to the evacuation center in case the waters rose again.

Chest-deep waters

In Barangay Guinacutan in Vinzons, where eight houses were washed away, the waters were still knee-deep or chest-deep in certain areas.

Nora Mauhay, 33, of Sitio Contod, recounted how she saved herself and her 9-month-old daughter:

“We were staying in a makeshift tent. When I saw the waters continuing to rise, I decided to tie my baby to my body with a strip of cloth.

“Then I swam through the waters, all the while making sure that my baby would not be carried away by the current. My husband swam toward us, got the baby, and put her on top of an empty water container.

“We spent the night at a relative’s house.”

Emma Bares, 41, also of Contod, said her family’s belongings, “including most of our clothes,” were swept away.

Bares and Mauhay appealed to the barangay (village) council of Guinacutan to help them find temporary shelter.

They said they feared battling the floodwaters again.

But in Barangay Guinacutan in Labo (not to be confused with Guinacutan in Vinzons), Grecel Sayno and her family said they were staying put as long as floodwaters had not reached their sleeping quarters.

Water queue

“We will stay while we still have a place to sleep in,” said Sayno, 29. But she added: “We are watching the water level.”

In Mercedes, Vice Mayor Brenda King Salalima appealed for donations of food and water to provide relief to more than 2,000 families affected by the flooding.

Salalima said members of hundreds of families with all sorts of containers had had to queue at the municipal government building compound for their ration of potable water.

“The water supplied by the water district is murky,” complained a resident bearing a large container.

According to the office of the local disaster coordinating council, the containers will be brought to Labo to be filled up so the residents of Mercedes do not have to wait in line for their water ration.

“They do not want to drink the water supplied by the water district,” said a staff member of the Municipal Disaster Coordinating Council.

Damaged bridge

The flash floods also cut the water supply to Daet, Talisay, Basud, San Vicente and Vinzons.

After two consecutive days of heavy rains, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) reported the closure of the Macogon Bridge along Daang Maharlika Highway in Labo.

In his report to Public Works Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane Jr., DPWH Region V Director Orlando Roces said heavy equipment and maintenance crew had been deployed to the area to conduct palliative repair work once the floodwaters subside.

Roces advised motorists to use the Quirino Highway as an alternate route. He said the district engineering office had completed a makeshift footbridge for the use of pedestrian.

He also said warning signs had been installed at both ends of the affected roads, and that a crew had been sent to respond to emergency road situations.

Willard Atutubo, DPWH district engineer of Camarines Norte, said the department’s emergency crews, as well as dump trucks, had been deployed to assist the Provincial Disaster Coordinating Council in the rescue and relief operations for the displaced families.

“As of [Wednesday] afternoon, we have completed clearing operations in minor landslide-affected roads. All secondary roads in Camarines Norte are now passable, except for the Macogon section,” Atutubo said.