Classes suspended in Cotabato town due to flood

KIDAPAWAN CITY — Classes in public schools in Kabacan town in Cotabato province were suspended on Thursday after heavy rain flooded the school grounds on Wednesday, June 5.

The suspension of classes was based on the recommendation of the Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (MDRRMC).

David Don Saure, the MDRRMC officer, said that in Kabacan Central Elementary School, 80 percent of the school ground was flooded.

Cotabato Schools Division Superintendent Omar Obas said schools in other towns were also affected by flooding, including those in Midsayap and some part of Matalam.

The affected schools in Kabacan are in low-lying areas where excess water from the Kabacan River and other waterways in the town flow, said Saure.

He said a number of low-lying villages in the town were also flooded. They were still collating the damage wrought by the flood to the town.

“We are still waiting for reports from our respective barangay disaster risk team. But we expect that once Kabacan River swells, excess water will automatically flow in these areas,” Saure said.

In Midsayap town, eight houses near the irrigation canal in Barangay Malingao were swept away by the heavy downpour, the town’s Municipal Social Welfare and Development Office reported.

At least a thousand residents were preventively evacuated for their safety, said the report.

Flashfloods also submerged Barangays Salunayan, Bual Norte and Bual Sur in Midsayap.

Some Muslim residents affected by the floods welcomed the Eid’l Fit’r, the celebration to mark the end of Ramadhan, at the evacuation center, the report added.

In President Roxas town, a house in Barangay New Cebu was damaged when a coconut tree fell on it at the height of the downpour.  (Editor: Leti Z. Boniol)