‘Mario’ leaves 1 dead, P70 M in damage in Ilocos Norte; 2 missing in Zambales

Fallen Trees in Ilocos Norte due to strong winds as tropical storm “Mario” slammed the entire province on Saturday.
Photo Credit: Joemar Tolentino

LAOAG CITY, Philippines – Residents of Ilocos Norte province endured more than 16 hours of intense rain and heavy gusts accompanying Tropical Storm “Mario” from Friday to Saturday, but the province recorded only one storm-related fatality.

Mario, however, destroyed and damaged crops, fish and livestock, houses, buildings, roads and bridges worth at least P76 million.

Reports from the Ilocos Norte Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (PDRRMC) said Maria Corpuz, a resident of Barangay (village) Casili here died of a heart attack as Mario pounded the province.

Jun Arvin Gudoy, head of the communication and media office of the provincial government, said two persons – Thelma Ragonjan, 56, of Currimao town, and Gloria Ganal, 72, of Sarrat town – were hurt in storm-related incidents.

The provincial board had placed Ilocos Norte under a state of calamity on Saturday.

Ilocos Norte Gov. Imee Marcos said the conduct of evacuation drills in the province proved helpful to prepare residents for calamities.

Marcos, however, lamented that some residents in some communities in Pinili and Bacarra towns refused to leave their houses amid warnings of flash floods in their areas.

Marcos urged residents to bear with the provincial government as it has been hastening efforts to deliver relief goods and other assistance, especially in villages isolated by floods and landslides.

On Sunday afternoon, a C-130 cargo plane landed at the Laoag International Airport to deliver relief goods from the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC).

In Zambales province, two fishermen in Subic town were reported missing after they failed to return home at the height of the storm on Friday.

Laureano Artagame, chair of the municipal fisheries and aquatic resources management council, said Jose Enguero, 54, and his son, Joseph, 29, both residents of Barangay Cawag in Subic, have yet to return home.

“The weather was fair when they left our house on Sept. 17 but they didn’t return the following the day,” Jose’s mother, Luneta Enguero, 73, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer on Sunday.

Cynthia Enguero, 31, daughter of Jose, said her father and brother went fishing near the Los Frailes Islands, 5 kilometers away from Silang Bay in San Antonio town.

Artagame said his office received a report that a capsized boat was seen drifting along the coast of Silang Bay on Thursday.

“We’ve reported the incident to the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) and a search and rescue operation was immediately carried out but eventually stopped,” Artagame said.

The number of flooded villages in Central Luzon region on Sunday reached at least 184 where 37,554 families or 178,848 people were affected, reports from the Regional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (RDRRMC).

The flooded villages were 96 in the towns of Balagtas, Baliuag, Bocaue, Bustos, Norzagaray, San Miguel, Obando and Sta. Maria towns and the cities of Meycauayan, Marilao and San Jose del Monte in Bulacan province; four in Cabiao town in Nueva Ecija province; 29 in Arayat, Mexico, Candaba, Macabebe, San Simon and Sto. Tomas towns in Pampanga province; 42 in Moncada, Paniqui, Ramos and Concepcion towns in Tarlac province; 12 in Olongapo City and Candelaria, Palauig and Sta. Cruz towns in Zambales province; and one village in Balanga City in Bataan province.

In Pampanga, the Department of Public Works and Highways reported portions of the following roads to be impassable due to floods: Baliuag-Candaba Road, Candaba-San Miguel Road, Sta. Lucia Matua National Road, San Gabriel Road and San Luis Road.

In Nueva Ecija, sections of the Nueva-Ecija-Pangasinan Road in Barangay Sabit in Cuyapo and Muñoz-Lupao Road in Barangay Mapangpang in Lupao were impassable.

In Pangasinan province, the San Roque Dam in San Manuel town on Sunday went on a “must run” operation to slow down the increase of its reservoir’s water level, a dam official said.

“This means that the San Roque Power Corp. (SRPC) will now generate power for 24 hours to release more water from the dam,” said Virgilio Garcia, hydrologist and chief of the National Power Corporation’s Agno Flood Forecasting and Warning System.

At noon Sunday, the dam’s water level was recorded at 277.86 meters above sea level (masl), just 2.14 meters from its normal level of 280 masl.

The dam catches water spilled from the Ambuklao and Binga dams in the upstream of the Agno River in Benguet province.

At 7 a.m. Sunday, Garcia said Ambuklao had three spillway gates open at 3 meters while Binga had six gates open at 5 meters.

“We now have excess water [at San Roque Dam]. It’s about 8 meters above our rule curve of 270 meters,” Garcia said by telephone.

He said the water flowing into the San Roque Dam was recorded at 700 cubic meters per second (cms), while the water going out of the dam was only 87 cms.

“By putting SRPC in a ‘must run’ operation, we are implementing some sort of preemptive water release,” Garcia said.

The SRPC, which has a peak capacity of 411 megawatts (MW) of electricity, is a “peaking plant,” which only operates during the peak hours from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., according to Garcia.

He said the SRPC has been generating about 388 MW of electricity and releasing water at 250 cms.

The water spilled from the dam is collected by a re-regulating pond, which can store 4 million cubic meters of water that could irrigate some 55,000 hectares of rice land in Pangasinan and in the neighboring provinces of Tarlac and Nueva Ecija.

“We have to lower the dam’s water level to 270 masl to prepare it for an incoming weather disturbance,” Garcia said.

The dam has a maximum water level of 290 masl.

In 2009, the dam was blamed for the massive flooding in Pangasinan when it spilled millions of cubic meters of water into the Agno River that breached and overtopped dikes and swept away houses along the river’s path. Reports from Leilanie Adriano and Gabriel Cardinoza, Inquirer Northern Luzon, and Tonette Orejas and Allan Macatuno, Inquirer Central Luzon

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