Floods surprise Central Luzon folk
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—Old Pampanga settlements like Lubao and Guagua bore the brunt of floods, looking like a swollen river where, save for some strands of mangroves, green patches are almost gone.
Military officials and reporters aboard a helicopter saw this scene on Tuesday, officials of the military’s Northern Luzon Command said.
Lubao and Guagua are at the mouth of the Pampanga River, where at least 30 rivers in Central Luzon drain before exiting to Manila Bay.
Floods in 200 of 537 villages in Pampanga were different this time because water rose to as much as 5 feet although the province was not placed under any storm signal, said Gov. Lilia Pineda.
Garbage and water hyacinths blocked floodwaters from draining to Manila Bay, she said.
While residents in Lubao and Guagua have mastered ways of coping with floods (boats and improvised floating devices are constant items in their households, for one), those in eastern towns are beginning to feel their impact.
Rosita Garcia, a resident of Sta. Ana town, said her house has been flooded waist-deep since Sunday. Usually spared from floods, residents of Sta. Ana now realize that having a second floor is a must.
The number of flooded villages in Zambales, Pampanga, Bulacan, Bataan, Tarlac and Nueva Ecija reached 640 on Monday, reports from the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) said.
Disrupted lives
The OCD said floods disrupted the lives of more than a million people, most of whom are in Bulacan and Pampanga. Bulacan, a coastal province, counted the biggest number of evacuees at 49,626.
The national government’s zero-casualty target was not met in Central Luzon as deaths due to drowning rose to five, excluding the three children who drowned before Tropical Storm “Falcon” battered the region.
Three people in Marilao, Bulacan, and in Hermosa, Bataan, remained missing as of Tuesday.
Damage to crops, livestock and fisheries in Central Luzon reached P157.051 million as of Tuesday, reports from the Department of Agriculture regional office said.
Zambales and Pampanga reported damaged dikes and spillways.
Bulacan officials said the floodwaters that submerged villages in Pulilan and Calumpit towns came from the upland areas of the province and nearby Pampanga and Nueva Ecija.
State of calamity
The Malolos City council on Monday declared a state of calamity in the city after 35 of its 51 villages were submerged by floodwaters.
Anicia Lazaro, 73, a resident of Barangay San Pablo in Malolos, said many residents were surprised about the floods because they never experienced this even as Typhoon “Ondoy” dumped heavy rains in 2009.
The last major flooding in the city happened in 1979, she said.
In Pangasinan, at least 13 villages in Dagupan City remained flooded on Tuesday, the city disaster risk reduction and management council said.
Vladimir Mata, city administrator, said Tomas de Guzman, 34, was reported missing after he fell from his boat in Barangay Bonuan Binloc on Monday. Mata said reports showed that De Guzman had an epileptic seizure.
On Tuesday morning, major streets in Dagupan’s business district were under water because of the high tide that had caused the city’s river systems to overflow.
Runoff rainwater
Mayor Benjamin Lim said many villages here were flooded because it was only now that runoff rainwater from eastern Pangasinan’s mountains reached this city.
“We are the last stop, the catch basin. So it is something we cannot remedy,” he said.
He said that at the height of the rains dumped by Falcon last week, no major flooding happened in the city. “But it is only now, after the rains had stopped that the water from the mountains is starting to go down. Then there’s the high tide,” Lim said.
Disaster council reports said floodwaters were as deep as 6 feet in seven villages and as shallow as a foot in other communities. Reports from Tonette Orejas and Carmela Reyes-Estrope, Inquirer Central Luzon; and Gabriel Cardinoza, Inquirer Northern Luzon
