Laguna towns prepare for 4 months of flood

THIS BIG area of flooded rice field in Victoria town is part of the thousands of hectares now under water in Laguna and in danger of being totally destroyed, according to Jaime Sumilang, one of the rice-field owners in the locality. ROMY PONTE/INQUIRER SOUTHERN LUZON

SAN PEDRO, Laguna—Local authorities in Bay, Laguna, mounted tents to serve as temporary shelter for the hundreds of families displaced by the flood.

Although the Laguna Lake Development Authority earlier said the flood caused by the swollen lake may last for two months, “we are anticipating the flood to stay for three to four more months given the number of typhoons expected to come this year. We just don’t want to be caught off-guard,” said Mariano Arcillas, municipal disaster risk reduction and management officer, in a phone interview on Wednesday.

Arcillas said 150 tents that could each house two to three families were put in place on a two-hectare government property inside Marianville Subdivision in Barangay Puypuy. The tents belong to the regional Social Welfare and Development office and the Rotary Club of Australia.

Aside from providing temporary shelter, disaster authorities also put up a common kitchen made of light materials, 30 cubicles of temporary comfort rooms and three artesian wells for the water supply. Potable water will be supplied by the local government.

“We are just working out the installation of electricity. When it’s done, hopefully we can start relocating the evacuees to the tent city this weekend,” Arcillas said.

The “tent city,” however, will only be able to accommodate at least 300 families out of the 1,497 families presently seeking shelter in 20 evacuation sites such as public schools, covered courts or private houses offered by village and municipal officials in Bay.

In Bay, six lakeshore villages—Sto. Domingo, San Antonio, San Isidro, Tagumpay, Maitim and Dila—remained under three- to five-foot deep flood.

“Our priority (for the tent city) are those occupying the schools, so regular classes can resume,” Arcillas said.