A mother takes her children to safety amid a second wave of flooding in a village in Oroquieta City on Monday, Dec. 26, 2022. (File photo from the Facebook account of Oroquieta City Mayor Lemuel Acosta)
ILIGAN CITY, Lanao del Norte, Philippines — Three barangays in Oroquieta City in Misamis Oriental were preemptively evacuated on Tuesday night as heavy rainfall, due to the trough of a low pressure area, threatened to cause more flooding in those areas.
Oroquieta Mayor Lemuel Meyrick Acosta gave the order – covering Barangays Talic, Taboc Norte, and Taboc Sur — and announced his decision in a Facebook post past 9 p.m.
The three barangays were the worst hit during a two-day flooding that began on Christmas Day.
Four hours earlier, Acosta urged the city’s residents to “be on guard [as] we have a flash flood alert.”
A regional weather forecast issued at 6:15 p.m. raised a yellow rainfall warning over Misamis Occidental, particularly in Oroquieta City and the towns of Sapang Dalaga, Calamba, Plaridel, Lopez Jaena, Panaon, and Aloran.
A yellow warning means rain intensity could be from 7.8 million liters per square kilometer to 15.6 million liters per square kilometer.
But even prior to the rainfall warning, Barangays Pines and San Vicente Alto had experienced renewed flooding, although with at a low level, due to incessant rainfall.
Towards midnight on Monday, flooding again hit Tudela town in Misamis Occidental. It was earlier swamped by waters on Christmas Day and the day after.
An orange rainfall warning was raised in the towns of Don Victoriano, Bonifacio, Clarin, and Tudela, and the cities of Tangub and Ozamiz at that time.