MANILA, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Philippine troops, on rubber boats and amphibious trucks, were rushing to six flooded areas south of Manila to evacuate nearly 120,000 people and supply food, medicine and blankets, disaster officials said on Friday.
Two people were missing and presumed dead after a landslide on Wednesday in Pagbilao town in Quezon province. In Calapan City on Mindoro island, rescue workers recovered the body of a man who drowned in floods on Thursday.
Neri Amparo, operations chief of the Office of Civil Defense, said residents of Mindoro, parts of which were under chestdeep water, should brace for more rain until Sunday, citing forecasts of a heavy monsoon across wide areas of the Philippines.
She said troops were mobilised to evacuate people to higher ground and ration food to those who wanted to stay.
‘’In the culture of Filipinos, we do not want to leave our homes,’’ Amparo said. ‘’That’s why we agreed that those who will not go to the evacuation center will be given food through rationing, utilizing the rubber boats.’’
She said displaced families were gathered at public halls, gymnasiums and school buildings after rains at the start of the week inundated Quezon, Camarines Norte and Mindoro provinces, damaging farms, homes and infrastructure.
The Philippine National Red Cross (PNRC) is also now in Mindoro Oriental assisting 14,227 families affected by the recent flashfloods from 135 barangays in five municipalities.
‘’We are also asking the public to help us by donating ready to eat food, medicine, clean clothes, mats, blankets, and water," said PNRC spokeswoman Gwendolyn Pang.
Television newscasts showed Thursday evening the pathetic situation in Calapan, Mindoro Oriental. Many residents were seen riding atop military trucks to evacuate from the flooded areas.
Close to 200,000 people have been affected by flash floods triggered by heavy rain and bursting dikes, but water levels in some areas had started to recede on Friday.
Doy Leachon, an official in Calapan City, said dikes protecting the city had been breached due to swelling rivers.
Disaster officials said Calapan City was the worst hit by flooding, forcing the local government to place the province under a state of calamity.
Environmental activists said the floods were exacerbated by logging, slash-and-burn farming and quarrying in the mountains in Quezon and Mindoro.
The Philippines is hit by about 20 typhoons and big tropical storms each year. The most destructive in recent times was Typhoon Thelma, which struck Leyte island in November 1991, unleashing floods in Ormoc City that killed about 5,000 people.
Late last year, just before the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami, four fierce storms triggered landslides and floods that left 1,600 people dead or missing and hundreds of thousands displaced in several provinces north and east of Manila. The Philippines was not affected by the tsunami.
NFA SENDS RICE
At least 450 bags of rice were already released by the National Food Authority to the city government of Calapan in Occidental Mindoro and to the city government of Lucena in Quezon after the two cities were almost submerged under water brought by heavy rains and the collapse of the Del Pilar protection dike.
NFA regional director for region IV Danilo Bonabon said the food agency is closely coordinating with the local government units in the areas as well as with other relief agencies such as the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC), Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the Philippine National Red Cross (PNRC).
Bonabon reported that in Calapan, the NFA has around 7,100 bags of rice which may be used for relief operations in the area. Damage to NFA stocks was minimal when the first layer of stocks at the GID warehouse were submerged in flood water. Some NFA records at the NFA office were also soaked in water. (With reports from Joel Atencio)
