RETRIEVAL | Police officers and members of a rescue team recover the body of a landslide fatality during retrieval operations in Oroquieta City on Sunday. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)
ILIGAN CITY, Lanao del Norte, Philippines — Northern Mindanao continued to suffer the beating of heavy rains due to a shear line as floods, this time higher than those that occurred on Christmas Day, engulfing many towns, sending thousands to evacuation centers.
On Christmas Day, Angel Rose Palangan and her family fought to survive from raging waters that engulfed their home in Barangay Rizal in Jimenez town, Misamis Occidental.
Recounting their ordeal in a social media post, Palangan said that after her parents were hauled to safety, she and two siblings climbed up the ceiling of their house as flood waters kept rising. Rescuers returned in time to save them as waters almost gobbled up their home.
“I thought it was our last,” Palangan recalled.
On Monday, while recuperating from the physical and mental bruises from the incident, Palangan learned that “a second wave” of flood waters, this time higher than the previous day, rampaged through their village, washing away what was left of their home.
Torrential rains
The shear line — or the point where warm and cold air meet — was projected to continue bringing torrential rains over Eastern Visayas, Bohol, Caraga, Northern Mindanao, and Davao Oriental; while Palawan and the rest of Visayas and Mindanao would also experience moderate to heavy rains, the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration said on Monday.
The Office of Civil Defense (OCD)-National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council on Monday reported that two persons were killed in Jimenez, Misamis Occidental, and nine went missing — five in Northern Samar, one in Leyte, and another in Misamis Occidental.
Around 80,000 were affected by the shear line-induced rains over the Christmas weekend, about 44,000 of whom were currently staying in 27 evacuation centers mostly in Northern Mindanao.
But local disaster offices recorded a higher number of fatalities.
The rains in Misamis Occidental that began on Christmas Eve caused a landslide in Mialen village of Oroquieta City where two died. Four more died on Christmas Day, two in Clarin town, one in Tudela town, and another in Aloran town.
In Isabela City in Basilan province, two persons were electrocuted while saving a family in Barangay Aguada, according to Jamju Rivera, the city’s economic development investment promotion officer.
Close to 200 families were displaced when strong rains hit Isabela on Sunday night.
In Eastern Visayas, the number of fatalities rose to four as two more fishermen died while eight others remained missing, according to the OCD in the region.
Hardest hit
For the second day in a row, Misamis Occidental continues to be battered by the effects of the shear line, with the provincial capital of Oroquieta City dealing with neck-high floodwater on Monday after its main river, Layawan, swelled. Monday’s rains also battered Ozamiz City and the towns of Clarin, Tudela, Sinacaban, Jimenez, Panaon, Aloran, Sapang Dalaga, and Lopez Jaena.
Due to the massive impact of the floods, the Misamis Occidental local government placed the province in a state of calamity.
As of Monday, the Department of Social Welfare and Development counted 9,839 families (45,883 individuals) who were displaced by the floods and storm surges in Northern Mindanao.
Eastern Visayas, mainly the Samar provinces, also continued to deal with the aftermath of the severe floods on Christmas Eve, affecting 8,612 families (32,422 individuals) as of Monday.