Misamis residents brace for more floods

TUDELA, Philippines – Residents of this town braced themselves for more floods as intermittent rains continued for a second straight day on Saturday, with many of them moving into an evacuation camp set up in the town center.

“The people are cautious now not to be caught in a similar situation again in the dead of night,” Mayor Estela Obut said.

On Friday, flashfloods spawned by 10 hours of continuous heavy rains starting Thursday night swamped 11 of the town’s 33 barangay (villages), or municipal districts and villages. The floods had subsided in most areas by Saturday but three villages remained isolated by the flooding.

Friday’s flooding damaged the asphalt pavement of several portions of the national highway, and led to the collapse of concrete fences of a number of houses.

Obut said evacuees reported that the water in the Paca River remained high and that they were not taking chances by staying in their homes as the rains continued intermittently.

The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration forecast “widespread rains over Visayas and Mindanao” due to the “tail-end of the cold front affecting Eastern Visayas and northern Mindanao.”

It warned of possible flashfloods and landslides.

In the neighboring town of Clarin, 21 houses in six villages were wrecked, but no casualties were immediately reported, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.

In Sapang Dalaga town, a house was destroyed.

In Mahayag, Zamboanga del Sur, a bridge that connected the village of Tolan to Dumingag town also collapsed, while a house was swept away by flood waters, the NDRRMC reported.

Dumingag Mayor Nacianceno Pacalioga told the Inquirer by phone that travel into the town at this time was via a spillway far from the bridge.  But the facility could accommodate only small vehicles like jeepneys, Pacalioga added.