With Reports from PIA Bicol
Albay Governor Joey Salceda has ordered the reactivation of evacuation plans for landslide and flood prone areas and residents in six towns following the continuous and heavy rains almost all throughout the Bicol region, and most heavily Albay for the past six days.
In an interview at Ugnayan sa Bicol radio program of PIA Wednesday (December 29), Salceda reiterated that “Advisory number 1 issued on December 24 remains in effect for landslide prone areas and evacuation, especially in the town of Manito, should be strictly implemented.”
Update: An 80-year-old woman and her son drowned while 4,000 were forced to flee their homes as monsoon rains brought flash floods and landslides to Albay and Sorsogon, officials said Thursday.
“For flood prone areas, local governments should be on alert and monitor eventualities in their areas. Rubber boats should also be ready,” he added.
Salceda furthered that “local disaster managers in the towns of Oas and Libon as well as Ligao City should monitor river conditions and take precautionary measures. Authorities have also readied rubber boats and six army trucks are also on standby at all times.”
A wind convergence affecting Southern Luzon, Eastern Visayas and Northeastern Mindanao, brought scattered to widespread rains especially in the Bicol area and Eastern Visayas.
Albay PDRRMC has enforced mandatory evacuation of 568 families or more than 3,000 residents in 12 landslide-prone barangays in six towns to maintain zero casualty amidst threat of disasters.
Evacuated residents who returned to their homes on Sunday and were ordered anew to be taken out of harm’s way were residents from barangay Salvacion, Sto. Domingo town; barangays Nagotgot, Malobago, Tinapian and Buyo in Manito town; barangay Morera, Guinobatan; Barangays Mataas and Mapulang Daga, Bacacay; Barangays Sta. Teresa, Calbayog, San Jose and San Roque in Malilipot.
Added to the landslide prone areas were some parts of the villages in Jovellar town along the Donsol River towards the neighboring province of Sorsogon.
“Families in Jovellar, especially those along Donsol River, were told to be on extra alert and monitor for possible flood.”
The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said a total of 802 families evacuated–632 came from the villages of Manito, Santo Domingo, Malilipot, Bacacay and Jovellar in Albay. The 170 families were from Juban and Magallanes in Sorsogon. Major roads in seven barangays (Rizal, San Pascual, Santa Cruz, Burgos, Tiris, Casay and Tingladian) in Casiguran, Sorsogon were impassable due to the overflow of the spillway.
Salceda has also directed the Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office (PSWDO) to release some 10 kilos of rice allocation per family evacuated.
He said Manito would not yet decamp its evacuees. (MALoterte, PIA V)
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Heavy downpour punctuated Christmas eve, most especially in Legazpi. It prompted my sister to send a fcbook message:
“Mauran ang Christmas igdi sa leg. heavy monsoon rain hovers around Albay but not in other provinces of region v. because of the rain the mood is not so festive. we were not even able to buy chocolate cake downtown because the city was flooded.”