MANILA, Philippines — The water level at the Marikina River is now at 15 meters, prompting the first alarm in accordance with the city’s disaster risk reduction system.
Updates from Marikina’s Public Information Office early Saturday morning showed that the river breached the 15 meter-mark as of 12:09 a.m., as rain brought by the southwest monsoon or habagat continues to pour over Marikina and nearby towns in Metro Manila and Rizal province.
In a separate Facebook post, Marikina’s City Rescue teams showed City Mayor Marcelino Teodoro on the ground to facilitate possible rescue operations as some residents have already reported waist-deep flooding.
“Kasalukuyang po tayong naglilikas dahil may mga kakabayan tayo nag preemptive evacuation dahil sa tuloy tuloy na buhos ng ulan at patuloy na pagtaas ng level ng tubig sa ilog ng Marikina,” Marikina City Rescue 161 said.
(We are currently having evacuation operations because some Marikina residents have started preemptive evacuation due to the continuous rain showers and the gradually increasing water levels at Marikina River)
Teodoro was seen moving around evacuation centers in the city, known for deep floods due to being the catch basin of floodwaters rushing from Rizal’s mountainous areas.
Just this November 2020, Marikina was placed under a state of calamity after successive storms from mid-October brought high amounts of rainfall which eventually found its way into the Marikina River.
An investigation ensued due to the massive floods in the city, which resulted into a massive dredging operation that revealed huge amounts of land being reclaimed from the river — around 27 hectares — which meant there is less area for water to flow into.
Earlier, state meteorologists from the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) said that Typhoon Fabian has started to weaken as it makes its way out of the Philippine area of responsibility (PAR) boundary.
But Pagasa also reminded that Fabian is still under a typhoon category and that it still pulls and intensifies the southwest monsoon or habagat, causing heavy rains over Luzon and Western Visayas.
As of Friday night, a Yellow Heavy Rainfall Warning remains raised over Metro Manila, which means moderate to heavy rains, with at times intense rains may be experienced in the coming hours.