Several Capiz towns still flooded

MANILA, Philippines - Several towns in Capiz are still flooded with the military having to use helicopters to deliver relief goods to hundreds of residents still trapped in their homes.

“The floodwaters became stagnant in wide areas of Capiz. We have to airlift and drop supplies of food to residents in the towns of Cuartero, Sigma and Dau,” Capt. Vicente de los Santos, spokesman of the Army’s 301st Infantry Brigade based in Iloilo, said yesterday.

Several schools, especially those in Dau town, are still flooded and full of mud, De los Santos said.

As of yesterday, the number of fatalities in Western Visayas reached 13, bringing the death toll from tropical storm “Quinta” to 17, with three of the fatalities from Leyte and one from Catanduanes in the Bicol region, the Western Visayas Office of Civil Defense (OCD) reported.

The fatalities drowned, were pinned by falling trees or got electrocuted at the height of the flooding brought by Quinta.

The OCD Western Visayas also reported that four people remain missing in Capiz and Iloilo.

“Floodwaters have already subsided along elevated highways but the houses, especially those in low-lying areas, are still submerged in several areas of Capiz,” De los Santos said.

He added that aside from helicopters, the Army is also using trucks to penetrate flooded villages to deliver supplies to the affected residents.

As of yesterday, OCD-Region 6 reported that a total of 39,020 families or 171,742 people in the provinces of Aklan, Capiz, Iloilo and Negros Occidental were displaced by Quinta.

Quinta’s floods also ravaged 245 hectares of crops, directly affecting 330 farmers.

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) has placed at P146.1 million the cost of damage left by Quinta to agriculture alone in Eastern and Western Visayas. – With Danny Dangcalan