Rescue work ongoing as flashflood hits Cabanatuan

WATER draining from the Sierra Madre mountain range caused floods to rise up to five feet along stretches of the national highway in Cabanatuan City in Nueva Ecija at 8:30 p.m. on Sunday, inundating 60 percent of 89 villages there, Gov. Aurelio Umali said .

“Water from Gabaldon town is supposed to drain out to Bongabon and Laur and toward the Pampanga River, but [this is not happening],” Umali said in a telephone interview.

On Sunday night, at least 30 families in Barangay (village) Communal in Cabanatuan were being rescued by personnel of the city search and rescue team and the Philippine Army’s 525th Engineering Brigade, local officials said.

Raymond Flores, Communal village head, said he sent dump trucks at 4 p.m. for a preemptive rescue operation but many residents refused to leave their houses.

About an hour later, rampaging flood water submerged a large part of the village, trapping several families.

Umali said if the level of flood water along the national highway on Sunday night would be the gauge, “floods must be much higher in villages along the Cabu River and Pampanga River.”

Vehicles, mostly trucks, have been stranded on the highway, with drivers, helpers and passengers taking safety on top of those vehicles’ roofs.

Umali said those trapped in houses with upper floors were people who did not heed the advice to evacuate as early as Saturday.

Rescue teams on boats have been trying to get people out of low-lying villages when water rose fast at between 3 and 4 p.m., he said.

“They did not want to leave,” referring to families who remained in the villages of Calawagan, Communal, Bagong Sikat, Caudillo and Bagas.

“Sayang, kung sumama sila kaagad ay hindi sila inabot ng baha (Had they heeded our plea and left their houses immediately, they would have escaped the floods),” Flores lamented, referring to residents trapped by rising flood water in his village. Several families in the farming villages of Cabu and Bagong Sikat, also in Cabanatuan, appealed for rescue as flood water rose late afternoon Sunday.
Shierly de Castro, a resident of Bagong Sikat contacted the INQUIRER by texting a friend, saying she and her family are on the roof of their house, praying for rescue. “Ginaw na ginaw na kami; may sanggol pa kaming dala (We are freezing, we have an infant with us),” she said. Tonette Orejas and Armand Galang, Inquirer Central Luzon