The Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management offices in the provinces of Compostela Valley and Davao del Norte both were on their feet the past few days due to intermittent rains that started December 30, 2016.
There was no rescue operation made nor massive evacuation in both provinces though personnel of PRDRRMOs kept their eyes glued on their monitoring system and kept their ears tuned in to calls from MDRRMOs for assistance.
In an interview this morning, Davao del Norte PDDRMO officer-in-charge Glenda Deli-deli revealed that water levels in areas closely monitored yesterday were two meters below the critical level but she said alert was raised in areas frequented with floods.
She was referring to areas where major rivers—Saug and Liboganon usually brought forth so much volume of flood waters during heavy rains.
In a separate interview, Davao del Norte PDRRMO Planning, Research and Early Warning Section Head, Eric Rosillo said that the towns of Kapalong and Talaingod heightened their information drive in communities along the riverbanks through “recoreda,” warning people of possible pre-emptive evacuation should the waters raise to a critical level.
Davao del Norte has placed 24 water level sensors in areas where Liboganon and Saug rivers flow through particularly in the towns of Kapalong, New Corella, Asuncion, Dujali and in Tagum City. It has also installed water level sensors in areas where tributary rivers are causing local flood particularly in Carmen, Talaingod and Sto Tomas.
Meanwhile, Compostela Valley PDRRMO Raul Villocino in a phone interview revealed that his office had kept ready its advice for all Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office (MDRRMOs) to activate their respective incident command post (ICP) should there be heavy downpour in the province today.
Compostela Valley PDRRMO has been monitoring since December 30, 2016 the adverse effect of intermittent rains brought about by the trough of the low pressure area (LPA).
Contrary to earlier reports, Villocino told PIA that major roads in Compostela Valley remained passable despite the raining though there were incidence of scour or erosion in portions of highways connecting the towns of Nabunturan and Maragusan, “but the road remains passable”.
He revealed that landslide reportedly occurred along the road connecting Maragusan (Compostela Valley) and Mati City (Davao Oriental), but based on accounts of Maragusan MDRRMO, the affected portion was outside the boundary of Compostela Valley.
On the other hand, Villocino revealed that 30 families of 112 individuals in Barangay Magsaysay in the municipality of Nabunturan were evacuated on January 1, and were made to take shelter at Magsaysay Elementary School. Villocino had yet to know this morning whether the families still stayed at the evacuation center.
Pre-emptive evacuation was also conducted on December 02 in Barangay Banag-banag in the municipality of Montevista. Villocino said evacuated residents went to their NHA (National Housing Authority) houses built for them who were victims of Typhoon Pablo.
Residents in flood-prone areas in New Bataan also left their places and returned to their NHA houses upon orders of PDDRMO released on December 30. (PIA 11/ Jeanevive Duron Abangan)
