Calls for help due to ‘Pedring’ keep Metro officials busy
Although work in all government offices were suspended on Tuesday due to Typhoon “Pedring,” Metro Manila officials were kept busy responding to calls for help.
In Quezon City, most of the calls were about “defenseless victims”—
trees felled by Pedring’s gusty winds.
“We kept getting calls [about] fallen trees. There’s no flooding but there were fallen trees everywhere,” said Elmo San Diego, chief of the Department of Public Order and Safety (DPOS).
At the Quezon City Hall, the power went out after a tree fell on electrical wires. Big branches, twigs, leaves and other debris littered the Academic Oval on the University of the Philippines Diliman campus which also had its share of uprooted trees.
San Diego said that as of Tuesday afternoon, the DPOS had responded to more than 30 phone calls about fallen trees that had clogged several thoroughfares.
In an area in Fairview alone, there were 18 trees that were brought down by Pedring, he added.
“We have prepositioned our rescue teams and rubber boats in the barangays to make it easier for our teams to respond to emergencies,” San Diego said.
Meanwhile, a street sweeper was injured when a concrete fence collapsed at 8:20 a.m. on J. P. Rizal corner P. Tuazon Streets.
Valencia Soriano, 30, was brought to Quirino Memorial Medical Center for treatment, according to Senior
Insp. Patricio Pinili, Quezon City Police District Tactical Operations Center supervisor.
Strong winds also uprooted an acacia tree on Commonwealth Avenue corner Regalado Street. It fell on a van but the unidentified driver of the vehicle was reported to be safe, Pinili added.
Another acacia tree fell on a Toyota Fortuner on Elliptical Road at 11:30 a.m. but again, there were no injuries.
City administrator Dr. Victor Endriga said that Mayor Herbert Bautista had ordered a close watch on areas affected by Tropical Storm “Ondoy.”
These included Bagong Silangan, Talayan and and Tatalon which were submerged for days after Ondoy slammed into Metro Manila in 2009.
As of yesterday afternoon, around 1,800 families living near waterways had been evacuated.
In Muntinlupa City, Mayor Aldrin San Pedro ordered the evacuation of 183 families living in three barangays situated near Laguna de Bay and
Kabulutan Creek.
Also evacuated were 120 families residing in Barangay Sucat, 52 families from Barangay Cupang and 11 families from Barangay Culi, Muntinlupa City government information officer Omar Acosta said in a text message.
Acosta said that the residents had to be moved to higher ground because the waters in the bay were rising due to the heavy, intermittent rains brought by Pedring.
“The evacuees were brought to Sucat and Cupang Elementary Schools which serve as temporary shelters,” he added.
In Parañaque City, around 600 families from different barangays were forced to leave their houses due to rising floodwaters. They were taken to an elementary school, a covered court and a gymnasium for shelter.
On T. Santiago Street in Lingunan, Valenzuela City, reports about flying roof sheets reached the public information office early in the morning, prompting local officials to advise residents to stay inside their houses.
At city hall, Mayor Sherwin Gatchalian was monitoring the situation with rescue officials.
In Malabon City, ankle-high floodwaters were reported, prompting residents to don rubber boots, including Bernadette Hidalgo, a resident of Gervacio Street in Barangay Hulong Duhat, who was on her way to a nearby retail store.
“I always have these to wear in times like this,” she told the Inquirer.
On P. Aquino Street in Barangay Tonsuya, the floodwaters were just as high although they were twice as high in Barangays Tañong and Longos, according to the city public information office.
“We are also closely monitoring Barangay Dampalit,” Ronie Gumatay told the Inquirer.
The barangay was the worst-hit area in the city in June when heavy rains brought by Tropical Depression “Egay” and a fishpond which overflowed, resulted in flooding as high as 12 to 15 feet in major streets.
On Tuesday morning, waist-high floodwaters surrounded Dampalit Elementary School—
both the Main and Unit 1 buildings—rendering the nearby streets impassable to all types of vehicles.
“It’s like a ghost town as you can see,” said a resident who was spotted wading through the flood.
In Barangays Baritan and Longos, there were reports of fallen trees and electrical posts although no one was killed or injured.
At around 11 a.m., Roderick Tongol, the head of the city’s disaster and risk reduction committee, told the Inquirer that the local government had deployed two rescue teams to barangays situated near Tullahan River because of the sheer number of calls for help from residents in the areas.
“The Tullahan River has overflowed and a number of families have expressed their desire to evacuate,” Tongol said.
The public information office reported that five families were evacuated from Barangay Potrero in the morning while 40 and five families, respectively, were forced to leave their houses in Barangays Tañong and Concepcion, due to rising floodwaters.
The families were seeking shelter in their respective barangay halls, Tongol said.
According to him, the local government also deployed rubber boats to ferry evacuees to the city amphitheater should the designated evacuation centers fail to accommodate all of them.
Tongol said that they were expecting the number of affected residents to rise within the day due to the strong winds and heavy rains.
For Chaterine Estevez, 25, a mother of four and a resident of Manila, Pedring was worse than Ondoy.
“The flood inside our houses went up to our knees this time and the winds were stronger; it blew away our ceilings and walls,” she said in Filipino, describing what happened to her makeshift home in Isla Puting Bato, Tondo, yesterday morning.
Estevez was among 3,000 people who were seeking shelter in Pedro Guevarra Elementary School in Binondo.
As early as 5 a.m, the Manila Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council started evacuating families from flooded areas and clearing uprooted trees, billboards and other fallen structures in coordination with the Philippine Army and the Manila Police District.
Officials of barangays beside waterways such as Barangay 177 in Tondo also conducted an evacuation of affected families in their areas.
As a result, the Pedro Guevarra Elementary School gym was packed with evacuees, mostly children, who were carrying blankets to spread on the floor.
For Estevez, leaving her house whenever a typhoon hits the city was nothing new.
“Homes in Isla Puting Bato are already built on water so they get swept away during storms,” she said.
Fearing for her children’s safety, she voluntarily left their house although her husband opted to stay behind to watch over their meager possessions.
“The children probably find this hard. It’s hot, crowded, dark and we sleep only on blankets. But we don’t have a choice. It’s safer than braving the floods and strong winds,” Estevez said, describing the situation inside the evacuation center. With Julie M. Aurelio, Miko Morelos, Kristine Felisse Mangunay, Penelope Endozo and Jaymee T. Gamil
