Flood-hit Digos folk back home
DIGOS CITY, Davao del Sur, Philippines — More than 1,000 families displaced by widespread flooding in the city and neighboring areas on Sunday night have returned home and started clearing mud and other debris from their properties.
Samuel Miralles, City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (CDRRMO) chief, said residents from the villages of Tres de Mayo, Cogon, Sinawilan, Igpit, Aplaya and Dawis were evacuated to safe grounds after floodwaters, triggered by a six-hour rainfall, submerged their communities and trapped them in their houses.
The CDRRMO did not report any casualty from the flooding.
City government records showed that 1,772 families (4,012 people) were moved to public gymnasiums in the city, Digos City National High School and a shelter in Barangay Igpit.
Miralles said Sunday’s flooding was the worst that the city experienced in the last seven years.
A large section of the flood control dike along the Digos River was damaged by floodwaters, exposing houses to the risk of a riverbank collapse.
—Eldie S. Aguirre
