BOAC, Marinduque, Philippines — The Boac River swelled and sea water rose amid heavy rains from tropical storm Ruby (Hagupit), raising fears of flash floods on Monday.
Ruby, which had turned from a typhoon into a tropical storm, made its third landfall in Torrijos town, shortly before noon Monday, dumping moderate to heavy rains within its 450-kilometer diameter, the state weather bureau said.
Eleuterio Raza, acting Provincial Disaster Risk reduction and Management Council (PDRRMC) officer, said the rain gauge in the province registered a maximum rainfall data of 30.8 millimeters, exceeding the forecast rainfall brought by Ruby.
He said the water level of the 27-kilometer Boac River reached 2.6 meters as of noon Monday and could overflow anytime as the river has been heavily silted with mine tailings left behind by the now defunct Marcopper Mining Corp.
Raza said villagers along Boac River and other low-lying areas were evacuated to higher ground.
Officials also reported the swelling of the Mogpog River and floodwaters inundating the rice fields of Mogpog.
Electricity in the province was also cut off and the opening of its Bila-Bila Festival that paid tribute to Marinduque’s butterfly farming industry was cancelled on Monday.
Data provided by the Mimaropa (Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon and Palawan)-DRRMC said that as of 8 a.m. Monday, 15,755 persons were evacuated in Marinduque to avoid Ruby’s fury.
The PDRRMC also feared the abandoned Makulapnit and Maguila-guila mine dams and Tapian pit of the former Marcopper Mining Corp. might collapse under heavy rains dumped by Ruby.
Raza feared that if the dams collapsed, it would cause catastrophic flooding in the towns of Mogpog and Boac.
The dams were among those previously operated by the Marcopper and were identified as being in “imminent danger of collapse” by the United States Geological Survey in 1996 after the spill occurred that.
In 1996, the plug of the Tapian pit of the Marcopper mine gave way and unleashed approximately 200 million tons of toxic mine tailings to Boac River. The tailings leak is considered to be the country’s worst mining disaster
In Oriental Mindoro, over 65,082 individuals from 12,462 families coming from high risk areas were ferried to evacuation centers by noon Monday, hours before the projected 8 p.m. landfall of the storm in the province, said Vincent Gahol, PDRRMC officer-in-charge.
He said they were on extra watch for storm surges in Calapan City and in the towns of Naujan, Baco and Puerto Galera.
Despite the rains, Catholic devotees in Calapan City celebrated the feast of the Immaculate Conception.
“We will not be shaken,” said Fr. Cenon Garcia, parish priest at St. Benedict Chaplaincy in Barangay Lalud in Calapan City.
In Romblon, officials also evacuated about 30,500 persons ahead of the entry of the storm in the island-province.
The Sibuyan circumferential road in Barangays Taclobo and España in San Fernando town in Romblon have been impassable to light vehicles due to half-a-meter high flood, said a report from the Mimaropa-DRRMC added.
(Reports by Delfin Mallari Jr., Madonna Virola and Jofel Joyce Lancion, Inquirer Southern Luzon)