Flood in Philippines on Sunday, Description More than 2,000 residents were evacuated after the largest rivers in Bayawan City, Negros Oriental and nearby areas overflowed Sunday, inundating several villages and killing at least two people, officials said. The rivers in Bayawan City, Sta. Catalina and Basay overflowed due to the more than 12 hours of continuous rains that also triggered landslides in several areas, said Negros Oriental Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (PDRRMC) action officer Adrian Sedillo. He said residents from at least 13 villages in Bayawan are now staying at the city gymnasium, the Internal Business Center, St. Augustine Academy campus, Sto. Tomas de Villanueva Catholic Church, and the Negros Oriental State University campus at the boundary of Villareal in Bayawan City and Caranoche in Sta. Catalina town. Updates from the Philippine Information Agency as of 4 p.m. Sunday revealed that two persons were reported dead as they were carried away by flashfloods along Ilog River in Mabinay town. Their identities, however, still have to be verified, as rescue operations for residents trapped in their homes were ongoing Sunday evening. As of 6 p.m., a rescue team from Dumaguete City has been looking for Richard Tejedor, who went missing after he was also carried away by strong currents at Banica River. A certain Police Officer 1 Rodilyn Gonzaga of Bayawan City police was also reported missing after he was separated from a lifeline around 2:30 p.m. while attempting to rescue some trapped residents in Sitio Punong, Barangay Villareal in Bayawan City, said Senior Inspector Nenette Vibares, city police chief. Gonzaga was hit by strong current from flood waters that had spilled over from the Banga River, which overflowed, changed course and sealed off access to the Bayawan City proper, reports said. The missing police officer was among the 72 members of the Special Counter Operations Unit Training Class 40-2013 that were deployed Sunday to help in the rescue operations. All 72 are swimmers, with eight of them females and nurses at the same time, said Senior Inspector Dexter Calacar, training manager of the Philippine National Police’s Regional Special Training Unit-7 in Central Visayas.
Posted on: Sun, 06 Oct 2013 17:18:13 +0000
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