Bulacan town flooded anew; 3 dams still releasing water

SAN MIGUEL, Bulacan—A month after this town in Bulacan province was submerged by 10-foot high floodwaters spawned by heavy rain dumped by Typhoon “Santi,” another flash flood hit 14 villages here on Sunday night following heavy rain.

Water level was about 2-feet high in riverside villages, the municipal disaster risk reduction and management council (MDRRMC) reported. No one was hurt, it said.

Mayor Roderick Tiongson urged the provincial and national governments, and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to investigate the source of recurring floods, which destroyed crops and property here in recent months.

“The floods need to be investigated and that’s not a task San Miguel can do alone. We are not certain why our town suffers from flash floods,” Tiongson said.

Knee-high floods were reported in the villages of Maligaya, Bardias, King Kabayo, Pinambaran, Baritan, Buga, Salakot, Ilog-bulo, Bagong Silang, Mandile, Bagong Pagasa, Sacdalan, Cambio and Pulong Duhat.

In October, rain dumped by Santi over northern and central Luzon left six people dead and 25 villages submerged in floodwaters.

Tiongson said residents had started to recover from that disaster when floods swept through their villages again on Sunday.

He said authorities should look at Bulo Dam, a facility that needs repair upstream of San Miguel.

Other people wanted a probe of supposed mining activities in the neighboring town of Doña Remedios Trinidad (DRT) on the heels of charges that rivers there were heavily silted.

Gov. Wilhelmino Sy-Alvarado attributed the flash floods in San Miguel to the denuded forests of Biak-na-Bato Park in DRT.

The provincial disaster risk reduction and management council (PDRRMC) has been tasked to undertake the probe on San Miguel’s flooding. It has also been monitoring the status of Bulacan’s three dams, which have been discharging water since Sunday after rains raised water levels there.

Operators of Angat Dam had informed the PDRRMC the reservoir registered water level increased in the last three days since Supertyphoon “Yolanda” crossed the Philippines.

As of 6 a.m. on Monday, water level at Angat Dam was recorded at 213.53 meters above sea level, prompting its operators to increase its discharge rate to 323 cubic meters per second. Angat’s spilling levael is 210 masl.

Ipo Dam also opened its floodgates to discharge 266.20 cms after its water elevation breached its 101 masl spilling level. Ipo’s water elevation was recorded at 100.65 masl on Monday afternoon.

Bustos Dam, which catches water released by Angat and Ipo, has been discharging water at the rate of 265 cms since 1 p.m. on Sunday.

Felicisima Mungcal, PDRRMC chief, said the water releases from the dams had not flooded the towns along Angat River, like Norzagaray, Angat, Bustos, Baliwag, San Rafael, Pulilan, Plaridel, Calumpit, Hagonoy and Paombong.

“We just had a meeting with their respective MDRRMC officers and they said the river and other waterways could still accommodate the releases, and there were no signs of overflowing yet,” Mungcal said.

In Isabela province, floods inundated villages in Ilagan City and the towns of Tumauini, Cabagan, San Pablo and Santa Maria because of continuous rain. The body of an unidentified man, who was believed to have drowned, was recovered in Santa Maria town on Sunday.

Isabela’s PDRMMC reported the water levels at the Pinacanauan, Magat and Cagayan Rivers rose last week, flooding 50 villages and inundating corn and palay farms.

The swollen rivers also submerged the overflow bridges, like Cabagan-Santa Maria, Santo Tomas-Cabagan, Gucab, Alicaocao and Annafunan.

Isabela was not in the path of Yolanda but weather bureau officials in the province attributed the continuous rain to the tail end of the typhoon and a low-pressure area.

Water level at Magat Dam rose to 192.32 masl on Sunday, or slightly below its spilling level of 193 masl. Carmela Reyes-Estrope, Inquirer Central Luzon, and Villamor Visaya Jr., Inquirer Northern Luzon