RESCUE WORK Personnel from the Nabunturan Emergency Response Team wade through flooded communities to move residents to safer grounds following the heavy rains in Nabunturan, Davao de Oro, over the weekend. PHOTO COURTESY OF NABUNTURAN MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT
TAGUM CITY—At least 71 families were forced to flee their homes and moved to safer grounds on Saturday night, as heavy rains dumped by a severe thunderstorm flooded several villages in two towns of Davao de Oro province, authorities said.
The families who were brought to shelters came from four communities in Mipangi village of Nabunturan town after Mayor Myrocel Balili ordered an emergency evacuation of residents affected by the flooding that hit parts of the town on Saturday night.
The heavy rains that began on Saturday night lasted until Sunday. The weather improved on Monday, prompting the evacuees to start returning home.
In Mawab town, residents in four communities of Barangay Malinawon were also evacuated following a flash flood, according to the municipal disaster risk reduction and management office.
A landslide also blocked a village road in Barangay Tuboran of Mawab, briefly rendering it impassable to motorists.
Mud and rocks that rolled down from a hill also partially blocked a portion of the national highway at Km. 69 of Tuboran. But the affected area had since been cleared of debris, the Mawab municipal disaster office said.
—FRINSTON LIM INQ
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