Classes in 6 flood-hit Albay areas suspended

LEGAZPI CITY, Philippines  – Albay Gov. Joey Salceda has suspended classes in elementary and high school in this city and in the towns of Manito, Daraga, Malilipot, Sto. Domingo and Camalig as part of preemptive measures to prevent casualties with moderate to heavy rainfall possibly triggering more flooding across the province.

This, as weather forecasters said the prevailing tail-end of a cold front would continue to bring cloudy skies with scattered rainshowers over the Bicol region and eastern Visayas.

The death toll due to flash floods and landslides in Regions 5, 8, 10, 11 and Caraga rose to 26 yesterday based on the latest report of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC). 

A total of 1,799 families or 9,362 Albay folk had been evacuated from landslide-prone barangays as of Wednesday afternoon.

The evacuees hailed from the barangays of Nagotgot, Malobago, Tinapian, Manumbalang, Balasbas, Itba, Cawayan and Buyo in Manito town; San Jose, Sta. Teresa, San Roque, Calbayog, and Barangays 1 and 2 in Malilipot town; Salvacion and Buhatan in Sto. Domingo town; Morera in Guinobatan town; and Aurora and Mabini in Jovellar town.

Salceda said there is no other way to adapt creatively to intensifying weather conditions due to climate change but to focus on the poor who are the most vulnerable.

Meanwhile in Agusan del Sur, residents of Esperanza town, one of the hardest hit by flash floods in the Caraga region, have run out of potable water.

Esperanza, according to reports reaching the NDRRMC, has remained without electricity for several days.

In flood-hit Surigao City, water supply was only restored in selected areas.

National and local disaster response teams have already provided P4.2 million in food and non-food items like medicine and drinking water to affected families in the entire Caraga region, the NDRRMC said.

The council said the number of fatalities from the eight flood-hit regions (Mimaropa, Bicol, central and eastern Visayas, western Mindanao, Davao and Caraga regions, and Autonomous Region in Muslim Min­danao) could still rise. – With Helen Flores and Jaime Laude