BUTUAN CITY, Philippines – Using government trucks and watercraft, the authorities hauled nearly 2,000 people to safety from at least 14 villages in Caraga region Tuesday as floods reached up to four feet deep in some areas in the wake of continuous monsoon rains.
Amado Posadas, operations chief of the regional disaster risk reduction management council, said forced evacuations were carried out in the provinces of Surigao del Sur, Surigao del Norte, Agusan del Sur and Agusan del Norte and Dinagat Island after a region-wide disaster alert was raised to Level 3.
Posadas said a 19-month-old child, identified as Roan Libres, went missing in Barangay (village) San Roque in Surigao City as residents were being evacuated Tuesday. The search for the child was continuing, he said.
Posadas said the floods were triggered by a low pressure area over Caraga since Sunday.
Worst hit was Surigao City in Surigao del Norte, where at least 260 families or 1,144 people were evacuated to higher ground.
In Surigao City, officials also barred ships from sailing because of the rains.
In Butuan City, commercial flights were cancelled due to poor visibility.
In Surigao del Sur, flashfloods were also reported in the towns of Hinatuan and Barobo.
The heavy rains also inundated several areas of Agusan del Sur, including Bayugan City and the towns of Bunawan and San Francisco.
Region-wide, the disaster management council said 1,896 persons were moved to evacuation centers.
“We have ordered preventive evacuation as a measure to prevent destruction and threat to lives of residents,” Posadas told the Inquirer.
In Bunawan, Mayor Edwin Elorde said he was forced to shut down a portion of the national highway to motorists and commuters on Monday evening because of rising floodwaters.
“I would not risk lives by allowing them to use the highway, where the floods reached waist-deep,” Elorde said.
He said the floodwaters had not subsided as of midday Tuesday and residents started leaving their villages for safer areas.
“The water started to rise in several villages because of the heavy rains since 5 p.m. [Monday],” Elorde said.
He said there were no reports of casualties and that the local governments could still manage the situation.
Noralyn Lopez, 36, said they also experienced floods in January but not as bad as the the current flooding.
In Valencia City, Bukidnon, continuous heavy rains also put at least nine villages under floodwaters.
Ruby Leonora Balistoy of the Philippine Information Agency in Northern Mindanao said that as of noon Tuesday, evacuation of some 300 families was ongoing.
In Davao del Norte, more people were also being moved out of several villages in the towns of Asuncion and Braulio Dujali, and Tagum City as the Libunganon River continued to swell Tuesday, the provincial disaster risk reduction management council said.
Sonio Sanchez, head of the council, said that they had initially evacuated 50 families from Barangay Maniki in Kapalong town.
Sanchez said that as of Tuesday, several Davao del Norte villages had been submerged in up to four feet of water from the overflowing Libunganon River.
The highway linking Davao del Norte and Compostela Valley was closed due to the floods, he said.
There were also reports of damage to property and crops but the authorities had yet assess the extent. The priority at the moment was the evacuation of residents, Sanchez said.
“The residents were cooperative enough to immediately leave as floodwaters were just starting to rise. We evacuated first the women and children,” he added.
In Iligan City, 18-year-old Alemar Buenaflor was uneasy as he watched the water level at the Iligan River.
Since Monday night, Buenaflor said, his family has been worrying about another flood as heavy rains brought the river’s water level up, sending them, along with eight other families in Purok Riverside of Mahayahay village, fleeing to the national highway.
The rains were making people in northern Mindanao jittery in the wake of last week’s killer flashflood that claimed the lives of at least 1,183 people, according to data from the Office of Civil Defense as of December 25.
A December 27 advisory from the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration said the weather in Mindanao will continue to be affected by the low pressure area spotted 60 kilometers southeast of Zamboanga City.
Pagasa warned residents along riverbanks, low-lying areas and near mountain slopes of possible floods and landslides.
In the absence of a daily Pagasa advisory, Alnor Abangco, 16, said the signal for them to flee is when a delta in the middle of Iligan River disappears.
In Lanao del Norte and Misamis Occidental, many barangays have formed “flood watch” teams, whose primary duty is to observe the water level in rivers in order to effectively warn villagers.
(Reports from Franklin Caliguid, Dennis Santos, Frinston Lim and Ryan Rosauro, Inquirer Mindanao)