CLOSE to a thousand individuals in Marikina City will be spending the night in evacuation centers as the water level at the Marikina River breached the 16-meter mark late Sunday afternoon.
The local government implemented preemptive evacuation of residents in the city’s low-lying barangays, namely, Nangka, Tumana and Malanday as Alert Level 2 on the river was raised at around 4:30 p.m.
As of 7 p.m., city disaster risk reduction and management chief Val Barcinal said that at least 255 families, or 999 individuals, are now in the different evacuation centers. He added that the water level at the river remains at 16 meters, with all eight floodgates open.
The evacuees will be spending the night at Malanday Elementary School, Nangka Elementary School, H. Bautista Elementary School, Bulelak Gym and Upper Balite Heights.
Two families who are staying at Upper Balite Heights were evacuated at around 10:30 a.m. for fear of a possible landslide in that portion of Barangay Fortune.
Housewife Myrna de Guzman, who’s among the close to a hundred families staying at H. Bautista Elementary School, told the Inquirer that she and nine of her relatives decided to leave their house in Barangay Tumana immediately after the local government announced the preemptive evacuation so that they won’t find themselves groping in the dark should the river continue to swell.
Maria Darantingo, 69, and six of her family members did the same, primarily because she has a foot injury and fears she would contract leptospirosis if she finds herself wading in floodwaters.
The two admitted that they obliged to the local government’s preemptive evacuations following their experience with Typhoon “Ondoy.” In 2009, the Marikina River reached a record 23 meters after Ondoy dumped a month’s worth of rain in just a day.
Barcinal said that while they continue to monitor the river, they are not expecting it to rise any further since rains brought by Typhoon “Lando” have stopped pouring in the metropolis.