Residents gather next to a flooded basketball court at a village in Butuan City, Agusan del norte province on the southern island of Mindanao on January 17, 2014, as floods inundated villages and towns after heavy rains. AFP FILE PHOTO
BUTUAN CITY, Agusan del Sur, Philippines – The rains here may not be as heavy as the past days, but landslides and flashfloods caused by a swelling Agusan River sent thousands more fleeing for safety.
Kaye Torralba, spokesperson of the Butuan City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, said the number of evacuees has risen to 16,796 families or 83,380 persons, up from 10,000 families on Monday and are now housed in at least 75 evacuation centers.
Torralba said the agency has imposed forced evacuations of people living in river-side and landslide-prone villages as the river breached the critical 4.55 meters level, raising the probability of more destruction and threats to life.
“There’s an ongoing forced rescue operation in all riverside villages in the city,” Torralba said.
Floodwater up to the waist and chest levels continued to inundate 83 villages of Butuan where hundreds of houses were submerged in water.
So far, 26 persons have died, and five have been reported missing, with 65,649 families or 310,594 persons displaced throughout the five-province region in the past two weeks.
Classes in all levels and work in government office in the cities of Butuan, Tandag, Surigao and provinces of Agusan del Norte, Dinagat and Surigao del Sur remain suspended.
Commercial flights in and out of Butuan, the regional capital were also canceled.
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