2 dead in Cotabato flash floods

LOOKING FOR ESSENTIALS | Residents return to their flooded communities in President Roxas, Cotabato, on Wednesday to retrieve some of their belongings and other household items that they can use in evacuation centers. (Photo by WILLIAMOR A. MAGBANUA / Inquirer Mindanao)

KIDAPAWAN CITY, Cotabato, Philippines — Heavy rains spawned by thunderstorms brought about by easterlies triggered flash floods that killed two residents in President Roxas town, Cotabato province, on Tuesday night, a local official said on Wednesday.

President Roxas Vice Mayor Jaime Mahimpit said the bodies of Luzviminda Dubria, 69, and Ging Ging Fortunado, 44, a person with disability, were found in separate areas in the rice fields of Sitio Upper Ipuan in Barangay Poblacion, at least a kilometer away from the area where they were last seen.

Letecia Dubria, a relative of one of the victims, said a landslide hit Sitio Ipuan on Tuesday night, followed by the flash flood that hit the victims’ houses. “We were aware that they were [swept] away by flood waters but we didn’t know what to do. It was nighttime and the current was very strong, so we never ventured out,” Dubria told the Inquirer.

Road blocked

Hundreds of families in the villages of Poblacion, Cabangbangan, Idaoman, Tuael, Green Hills and Mabuhay were also displaced, Mahimpit said. In the town’s Barangay Green Hills, a portion of the slope caved in, blocking parts of the highway linking President Roxas to neighboring Antipas.

“It will take at least two days to clear the highway of debris and rocks,” Mahimpit said. Skyline Resort, one of the town’s tourist attractions, was also hit by landslides. Boulders, rocks, and mud covered the resort’s swimming pool and function halls at the height of the downpour.

The municipal agriculture office said floods also damaged several hectares of newly planted rice but it could not yet cite figures on losses as the office was still consolidating its data.

Mahimpit said the municipal council would convene to discuss placing the town in a state of calamity.

In Pagadian City, rampaging waters from a creek in Balangasan village stripped away a 10-meter stretch of a flood control dike at Purong Tabing Ilog, causing floodwater to swamp nearby communities on Tuesday. At least two houses were swept away while 200 villagers fled to the barangay hall and covered court, said Richard Fabria, the city’s disaster response chief.

—REPORTS FROM WILLIAMOR MAGBANUA AND LEAH AGONOY

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