Maguindanao flood: 10-yr-old boy dead

A PORTION of the Cotabato-Davao highway submerged in flood on Thursday following three days of heavy rain. PHOTO FROM HEART

COTABATO CITY, Philippines—A 10-year-old boy died when floods submerged low-lying villages of Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao as bad weather continued to sweep across mainland Mindanao on Thursday.

The Humanitarian Emergency Assistance and Relief Team (HEART), of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said in a press statement that the fatality, Jing Laure, was swept by floodwater after he fell while trying to climb to the roof of their house.

HEART said 9,800 residents of 10 villages in Sultan Kudarat had been at risk because of the flooding. All of the areas submerged in flood were near rivers that overflowed following three days of torrential rain.

The national highway linking Cotabato City to North Cotabato turned into a river when water started rising at dawn Thursday. Water was still rising as of late yesterday morning.

HEART personnel, led by Ramil Masukat, regional disaster risk reduction management officer, conducted an ocular inspection with Sultan Kudarat Mayor Shameen Mastura.

Hundreds of families living in the interior portion of Sultan Kudarat town, which sits beside the Rio Grande de Mindanao and south of Simuay River, had been evacuated, disaster officials said.

Floodwater may rise higher when sea water enters Rio Grande during high tide. Edwin O. Fernandez, Inquirer Mindanao