AT LEAST seven people are believed to have been killed while one was still missing following the flooding in northern Mindanao caused by a low-pressure area affecting Mindanao, the Office of Civil Defense said Tuesday.
Misamis Oriental Gov. Yevgeny Emano said Gingoog City is the hardest-hit area in the province in terms of flooding and Manticao town in terms of landslides.
“There was a preemptive evacuation in Gingoog City and Lugait town declared a state of calamity for massive damage it sustained due to the heavy rain,” Emano said, noting that 421 families were evacuated in Gingoog.
Office of Civil Defense director Ricardo Jalad, concurrent executive director of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, said the flooding was due to continued heavy rains compounded by drainage problems.
Jalad said there were also floods in Iligan City, Misamis Oriental, and Lanao del Norte.
The NDRRMC chief said a report from the weather bureau saying the low-pressure area and the tail end of cold front were bringing moderate to heavy rain and thunderstorms over Northern Mindanao, the Zamboanga Peninsula, Palawan and the Visayas.
“Continuous rain will be experienced in Regions 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and Negros,” Jalad said.
He said 1,116 families or 4,879 people were affected by the flooding in Cagayan de Oro City, which was placed under state of calamity.
He said of those affected by the flooding, 810 families or 3,911 people were evacuated to government evacuation centers.
Misamis Oriental, Misamis Occidental, Bukidnon, Zamboanga del Norte, Lanao, Maguindanao and Cotabato were also hit by heavy rain, as well as the Dinagat area and the eastern part of Southern Leyte in the Visayas.
Fernando Dy, officer-in-charge of the Misamis Oriental Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office, said three of the four fatalities were children.
He identified the fatalities as three-year-old Jaime Chan of Gingoog City, seven-year-old CJ Lapuz of Magsaysay town, 10-year-old Kian Montecino of Opol town and Nilo Quiloman, 54, of Gingoog City.
Dy said one person—Abel Uano of Medina town—was reported missing.
The Misamis Oriental PDRRMO said 1,654 families or 6,827 persons had been displaced by the flood.
“Of the province’s 23 towns and 2 cities, 14 were affected by swelled waterways with unpassable roads and bridges,” Dy added.
“The casualties are not yet in our records because we have to validate first,” Jalad said, adding that severe flooding has affected 4,879 persons and caused the evacuation of 3,911 others in Cagayan de Oro as heavy rains battered the city and other areas of Northern Mindanao.
Malacañang, on the other hand, said all concerned government agencies have been assisting the victims of the massive flooding in northern Mindanao.
“Government is doing everything to ensure that things go back to normal especially now that the weather is improving and roads are again passable,” Presidential Spokesman Ernesto Abella said in a press statement on Tuesday.
Abella said the Department of Social Welfare and Development has started providing assistance to the families affected by flooding particularly in Cagayan de Oro City which has been declared under state of calamity.
He said the DSWD Field Office 10 has 3,200 bags of rice prepositioned in Misamis Occidental, Camiguin Islands, Iligan and Bukidnon.
“DSWD also has 9,000 family food packs, 2,000 dignity kits and a stand-by fund of P7 million. The dignity kits and family food packs will be sent today to affected families. The DSWD is likewise ready to augment relief supplies as needed,” Abella said.
Jalad said Cagayan de Oro, heavily-battered by Typhoon “Sendong” in 2011, was forced to declare a state-of-calamity Tuesday as result of the severe rain and flooding it experienced again Monday.