UNDERWATER Heavy rains since Wednesday night caused the rivers in Malalag, Davao del Sur, to swell, swamping its town center and 10 other villages with floodwaters as shown in this photo taken on Thursday afternoon. —PHOTOS courtesy of THE DAVAO DEL SUR PROVINCIAL INFORMATION OFFICE
DIGOS CITY—The adjoining towns of Malalag in Davao del Sur and Sta. Maria in Davao Occidental provinces on Friday found themselves in dire need of help after most of their villages were inundated by massive flooding and landslides on Thursday caused by continuous heavy rains since Wednesday night.
The two towns were placed under a state of calamity by their respective municipal councils on Thursday afternoon, which would allow each town to access their quick response fund to address the effects of flooding at a scale they had not experienced before.
The damage to infrastructure, properties, commercial establishments and agriculture was so widespread they would need help to recover, local disaster responders said.
Two other towns in Davao del Sur and another in Davao Occidental also experienced severe flooding caused by torrential rains that the state weather bureau said was spawned by a low pressure area and the intertropical convergence zone.
Death toll
The floods in Sta. Maria and Malalag and the nearby towns of Kiblawan and Sulop in Davao del Sur and Malita in Davao Occidental had left at least three people dead and affected at least 27,000 individuals, according to a report released on Friday by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in the Davao region.
Sta. Maria councilors held a special session to approve the calamity declaration while those in Malalag pushed through with their scheduled regular session in order to enact the measure.
The Malalag municipal council noted that of the town’s 15 villages, 11 were hit by massive floods, namely Poblacion, Bulacan, Caputian, Ibo, Bolton, Tagansule, Pitu, Bagumbayan, Baybay, New Baclayon and Kiblagon.
Malalag’s town center was among the badly hit areas with the public market and public transport terminal submerged in meter-deep water on Thursday, while a bridge has collapsed, according to the municipal disaster risk reduction management office.
Local authorities noted two fatalities due to the floods, one each from Barangay Ibo and Barangay Pitu.
COLLAPSE A bridge leading to the town center of Malalag, Davao del Sur, collapses on Thursday due to the strong river current amid widespread flooding, in this photo taken on the same day.
Affected families
Davao del Sur Gov. Yvonne Roña Cagas visited Malalag on Thursday afternoon to oversee the provision of emergency relief assistance to affected families, some of whom evacuated to safer grounds while others opted to stay in their houses while waiting for the water to recede, the provincial information office said in a social media post.
As of Friday, the Disaster Response Operations Monitoring and Information Center of the DSWD in the region counted some 6,754 families or about 27,855 individuals affected by the floods and landslides in the five towns. However, only 479 families or 1,949 persons opted to stay in evacuation centers.
The agency also recorded three deaths and three injuries, 67 houses wrecked and 58 partially damaged.
Although validation of the affected families was still ongoing as of Friday, Sta. Maria town appeared to have the most number, so far, as the DSWD distributed some 5,000 family food packs there. The agency also distributed 1,000 relief packs in Malalag and 550 in Kiblawan. The displaced families from Sulop were staying in evacuation centers at the municipal center, the agency said.
On Friday, the bridge in Barangay Tanwalang of Sulop, which connected Padada and Kiblawan towns, was still impassable as its approach was destroyed by floodwaters, the Kidlawan municipal government said in a social media post.
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