Pampanga under calamity state due to floods

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO — Pampanga was declared under a state of calamity Monday after heavy and continuous rains last week flooded 18 of 20 towns in the province.

The Pampanga provincial board, in a session on Monday morning, issued the declaration so the provincial government could use its calamity funds to help flood-hit towns.

Although heavy rains have stopped, at least 273 villages in 18 Pampanga towns remained flooded on Monday, with water level reaching at least 4 feet, reports from the provincial disaster risk reduction and management council showed.

At least 2,029 families in the towns of Guagua, Sasmuan, Floridablanca, Bacolor, Sto. Tomas and Mexico and the City of San Fernando have been evacuated to barangay halls and school buildings not reached by floods. PDRRMC reports said other families chose to stay with relatives.

Department of Education officials in the province suspended classes in more than 100 schools swamped by floodwaters on Monday.

On Sunday, a search and rescue team recovered the body of 15-year-old Marlo Jay Musni, who drowned while gathering kamaru (crickets) at a flooded rice field in Barangay Sta. Cruz in Mexico town.

Police said Musni was with four cousins gathering crickets on June 25 when he slipped and fell into an irrigation canal. Strong currents carried him into the culvert box.

In Nueva Ecija, classes remained suspended in three public elementary schools in Cabanatuan City on Monday as their facilities were being used for the evacuation of families displaced by floods.

The Nueva Ecija PDRRMC said at least 119 families were evacuated in anticipation of floodwaters from the province’s upstream areas.

Abraham Pascua, PDRRMC co-chair, said the provincial government teams of soldiers and rescue volunteers were sent to flood-prone areas, including Licab town, which serves as catch basin for floodwaters from the Cuyapo, Nampicuan and Guimba towns. With reports from Tonette Orejas, Jun Malig and Armand Galang, Inquirer Central Luzon.