Forced evacuation in Central Luzon as waters continue to rise

In this photo provided by the Philippine Air Force, floodwaters inundate homes and rice fields in northern Philippines Tuesday Oct. 20, 2015. Tropical Storm Koppu finally blew away from the main northern Philippine island Tuesday, after leaving several dead over the weekend and forcing tens of thousands of villagers into emergency shelters and destroying rice fields ready for harvest. (Staff Sgt. Roldan L. Medina, Philippine Air Force – PIO 410th maintenance wing via AP)

FOUR days after Typhoon “Lando” (international name: Koppu) wreaked havoc in central and northern Luzon, close to 500 families in seven towns in Pampanga province, were forcibly evacuated as floodwaters continued to rise.

A state of calamity was declared in the towns of San Luis, Arayat and Candaba, all in Pampanga, because water draining from Nueva Ecija and Bulacan provinces overflowed downstream from the Pampanga River and into these towns.

The rising floodwaters came as the weather bureau lifted the remaining warning signals over northern Cagayan and Batanes province on Wednesday afternoon, when Lando had weakened into a low pressure area.

As of 4 p.m. Wednesday, the center of the low pressure area was 120 kilometers southeast of Basco, Batanes, and 80 km east northeast of Calayan, Cagayan.

The low pressure area will linger until the weekend and bring light to moderate rains over northern Luzon provinces in the Ilocos region, Cordillera Administrative Region and Cagayan Valley, according to the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa).

Lando slammed into Central Luzon on Sunday as a powerful typhoon with maximum winds of 175 kilometers per hour and gusts up to 210 kph brought heavy to intense rains within a 600-kilometer diameter.

A total of 493 families in Arayat, Candaba, San Luis, San Simon, Apalit,  Masantol and Macabebe were forcibly evacuated, according to Pampanga Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (DRRMC) Executive Director Angelina Blanco.

Raging floodwaters and landslides in Luzon were responsible for most of the deaths, Romina Marasigan, a spokesperson for the national disaster agency, told reporters.

Seven more fatalities attributed to Lando were reported in Pampanga, Zambales, Bulacan and Benguet provinces, raising the death toll monitored by the Inquirer to 42.

More than 100,000 people are still in temporary shelters as Lando destroyed more than P6.57 billion worth of crops, infrastructure and homes.

Farm damage has climbed up to some P6.4 billion, but new areas are getting flooded, such as Alcala in Pangasinan, even after Lando has left the Luzon landmass, said Assistant Agriculture Secretary Edilberto de Luna.

Agriculture Secretary Proceso J. Alcala said that based on the latest field reports, damage to rice farms amounted to P5.7 billion, with 383,668 tons of palay lost.

Flooded villages

Lando flooded 257 villages, 24 of these in Bulacan, 152 in Nueva Ecija and 81 in Pampanga, according to the regional disaster agency. It said 19,343 families (88,673 people) sought refuge in 358 evacuation centers mostly converted from classrooms, barangay halls, gyms, day-care rooms and chapels.

On Wednesday, Interior Secretary Mel Senen Sarmiento, Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman and Undersecretary Alexander Pama, who also heads the Office of Civil Defense, took a 7:25 a.m. flight to Baler, Aurora province, to bring food items to Lando victims there.

Initial damage to infrastructure and agriculture in Central Luzon was estimated at P5.861 billion, mostly rice grown in Nueva Ecija.

Heavy rain by Lando rose water levels in dams in central and northern Luzon. Water in Angat Dam in Bulacan, which supplies more than 90 percent of Metro Manila’s supply, increased to 203.60 meters above sea level (masl) or seven meters from its ideal level. Water reached 99.65 masl in Ipo Dam and 17.40 masl in Bustos Dam, both in Bulacan.

Water in Pantabangan Dam in Nueva Ecija climbed to 202.10 masl, still far from the ideal 221 masl.

Floodwaters from Central Luzon provinces flowing into the Pampanga River have submerged villages in the Bulacan towns of Calumpit and Hagonoy, which are in the waters’ path.

In Calumpit, 24 of its 29 villages were flooded, affecting 65,110  residents. In Sapang Bayan village, the water reached as high as 3 meters on Wednesday, submerging houses. This prompted the local government to send 380 residents to evacuation centers.

Water to continue rising

Another 1,585 people from San Marcos village, 350 people from Pungo, 261 from Poblacion, and 247 from San Miguel were evacuated on Wednesday as the flood was expected to continue rising in the next few days.

Raul Agustin of the Bulacan disaster agency said floods in the two areas were likely to linger until Saturday or Sunday.

The water level of Pampanga River basin in Sulipan station was recorded at 4.09 meters by Wednesday, higher than its alert level of 3.6 meters, according to Pampanga River Flood Forecasting and Warning Center. In Candaba station, its water level is placed at 7.11 meters, surpassing its critical level of 5 meters.

With the rising tide, floodwaters started rising early Wednesday in Hagonoy but immediately subsided. The water rose again in the afternoon, flooding villages of San Isidro, San Juan, Iba and San Miguel.

Some parts of MacArthur Highway, Calumpit-Pulilan Road and Calumpit-Hagonoy  Road were impassable to all types of vehicles on Wednesday.

Damage to Bulacan agriculture was estimated at P554 million, with losses amounting to P489 million from rice crops and P65.8 million from vegetables.

In Nueva Ecija, Lando destroyed rice crops worth P3.4 billion, considered one of the worst in terms of losses for this Luzon rice granary in years, said Serafin Santos, provincial agriculturist.

The typhoon damaged 235,991 metric tons of rice grown on 134,000 hectares  of farms. Some of the rice crops were about to be harvested when the farms were inundated by 12 hours of rain. Ninety percent of newly planted grains  were also destroyed.

Affected were farms in southern Ecija towns like Sta. Rosa, San Leonardo, Jaen, San Isidro, San Antonio, Cabiao, Aliaga and Zaragoza.

Vegetable prices

Vegetable prices in Benguet dropped after farmers started selling their produces at cost. The typhoon discouraged truckers from ferrying salad vegetables to lowland markets although supplies were abundant, said Augusta Balanoy of the Benguet Farmers’ Marketing Cooperative.

She said buyers stopped shipping vegetables because of low demand in Metro Manila. Reports from Tonette Orejas, Ron Lopez, Anselmo Roque, Armand Galang and  Carmela Reyes-Estrope, Inquirer Central Luzon; Kimberlie Quitasol,  Inquirer Northern Luzon; Dona Z. Pazzibugan and  Ronnel W. Domingo in Manila