Water from San Roque Dam worsens flooding in Tarlac

PANIQUI, Tarlac — There may be no more heavy rains but large portions of five Tarlac municipalities are still heavily flooded.

This, as excess water released from the San Roque Dam in upland Benguet has worsened the flooding in the five towns, whose residents found their homes inundated after an earth dike along the Tarlac River collapsed last Friday, Gov. Jose Yap Sr. said.

With the Tarlac River still at critical level, sandbagging operations along its embankments have been hampered, especially in Barangay Colibangbang here where raging floodwaters washed away the earth dike.

The river is the catchbasin of floodwaters from Tarlac’s western mountain ranges.

Although floodwaters here subsided yesterday, the neighboring towns of Moncada, Anao, Ramos and San Manuel practically became the catchbasin of floodwaters flowing from the Tarlac River through this town.

Most villages in the four towns were still in four feet of floodwaters yesterday.

The Paniqui-Moncada portion of the MacArthur Highway was opened to traffic but light vehicles were alerted on the occasional surging of floodwaters.

Meanwhile, Navy frogmen and provincial rescue personnel continued to scour the raging Rio Chico River between La Paz, Tarlac and Zaragosa, Nueva Ecija for missing cousins Don-Don Salazar, 20, and Quirino Salazar, 42, who were swept into the waterway late Friday.

Elements of the Armed Forces’ Northern Luzon Command (Nolcom) based in Tarlac City have assisted villagers in sandbagging the banks of the Tarlac River in Barangays Aguso and Dalayap in Tarlac City; Sembrano, Malayep, Bularit and Ayson in Gerona; and Sapang and Calamay in Moncada.

Sacks of sand were also stacked up on the banks of the Rio Chico River in Barangay Lara in La Paz, the Camiling River in Barangays Bacabac and Libueg in Camiling, and the swollen creek in Barangay Sula in upland San Jose town.

Subsiding floodwaters finally allowed Nolcom trucks to penetrate isolated villages here and in Camiling, Moncada, Ramos and La Paz to distribute relief goods.

Three Air Force helicopters also helped airlift relief goods to villages inaccessible to Navy rubber boats.

The calamity has affected 54,723 families or 212,401 people in the entire province. More than 2,000 families are staying in evacuation centers.

Provincial agriculture chief Bartolome Fajardo initially placed damage to palay at P47.18 million.

In Pangasinan, Gov. Victor Agbayani, in a report to Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz, chairman of the National Disaster Coordinating Council, said the calamity has affected 86,790 families or 489,511 people in 759 barangays in the province’s 44 towns and cities.

Agbayani estimated the damage wreaked by floods triggered by five days of incessant rains at P271 million.

The floods claimed the lives of nine people, mostly due to electrocution or drowning. A seven-year-old boy in Tayug town was reported still missing. — With Eva Visperas