Residents along Cagayan River woke to flooding of their communities this morning as Magat Dam in southern Isabela released more water downstream on Sunday.
Riverside communities in the northern Isabela towns of Cabagan and San Pablo as well as Cagayan province’s Tuguegarao City, Enrile, Solana, Tuao, Piat, and others are chest deep in floodwaters as sunrise rose from behind the Sierra Madre in the east for the first time since Typhoon Uwan battered the region.
The floodwaters are expected to continue to rise as the National Irrigation Administration said that the dam only reduced its gate openings by a meter with an estimated discharge of 833 cubic meters per second from as high as a thousand.
Buntun Bridge, the busiest span across the country’s widest and longest river, will be closed to traffic once the water level reaches 12 meters from the current 11.8.
The bridge connects eastern Cagayan (including Cordillera provinces) to the west of the province, the region’s administrative and economic center.
Cagayan Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office chief Ruellie Rapsing said it may take at least three days before the floodwaters subside.
Isabela governor Rodolfo Albano III meanwhile scrambled to explain his absence while his province was being battered by Typhoon Uwan and currently inundated.
Both the Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act of 2010 (Republic Act No. 10121) and the Local Government Code of 1991 (Republic Act No. 7160) require chief executives to be physically present in their areas of responsibilities to lead disaster response efforts.
Albano — currently in Hannover, Germany – said his trip to attend an agro fair was approved by the Department of Interior and Local Government.
Supporters meanwhile of Tuguegarao City Mayor Maila Ting-Que, receiving online flak for her remark that farmers may leave their animals behind if already in imminent danger from the floods, said the Inquirer and TV5 reports were taken out of context.
The supporters said the mayor recalled that an elderly farmer drowned last year trying to save his goat herd from the floods before advising her constituents to save themselves first.
Cagayan Valley Department of Social Work and Development workers reported delivering relief packs to various evacuation centers throughout the region.
Humanitarian group Citizen’s Disaster Response Center said it is ready to accept donations for upcoming relief operations in Northern Luzon. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
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