Volume of ‘killer’ logs in Iligan awes execs

ILIGAN CITY—The amount of logs that made the Dec. 17 flooding here deadlier was far bigger than officials had thought, according to some officials coordinating operations to remove the logs that rolled down from the mountains of Lanao del Sur.

“There are more logs than we earlier thought,” said city administrator Pacificador Lluch.

According to Lluch, the manpower devoted to removing the logs proved to be no match for the amount of logs that forest destruction and heavy rains had dumped on a 5-kilometer stretch of this city’s coast.

Only two teams are on a mission to remove the logs, equipped with two chainsaws to cut the logs into pieces for use as housing materials for thousands of residents whose homes were destroyed when the flood-borne logs pummeled into them.

Lluch said at the rate the logs are being removed, the operation to clear the city’s coast could take at least a year.

The logs are hauled to a cove in Barangay Armac where these are processed into lumber. At least 10 boats are being used for the hauling with each boat having the capacity to carry four logs per trip.

The need to remove the logs becomes urgent every day. Fishermen are complaining that they couldn’t take their boats out to sea, especially during low tide, as the logs are blocking the coastline.

During high tide, waves turn the logs into battering rams that pummel their homes, the fishermen said.

In some coastal villages, the logs impede the flow of water in canals and creeks into the sea, making these vulnerable to flooding when it rains and raising health concerns over stagnant waters, residents said.

Officials have tripled the workforce for the hauling operations and appealed for help from other government agencies and nongovernment groups.

According to city administrator Lluch, the coast of Barangay Armac would be turned into a log pond. “Lumber production will shift there,” he said.

The nongovernment group EcoWeb said it planned to lend a band saw to workers in Armac to speed up the processing of the logs.

Aside from the logs that litter the city’s shores, residents and workers are also trying to remove up to waist-deep mud that the Dec. 17 disaster left on city streets.

Councilor Simplicio Larazabal, official in charge of mud-clearing operations, said the city hopes to be able to borrow more equipment from the Department of Public Works and Highways. Ryan D. Rosauro, Inquirer Mindanao