Floods destroy P5.2M worth of crops in NCotabato

COTABATO CITY, Philippines - Rampaging flashfloods swept away more than P5 million worth of harvestable crops in 10 barangays in North Cotabato’s Kabacan town following three days of heavy rains that started over the weekend.

Kabacan’s municipal agriculture office pegged to P5.2 million its initial estimate of the crops destroyed by the flashfloods.

Kabacan’s disaster risk management council, in a statement, said the flashfloods devastated 707 hectares of rice and corn farms sprawled in the 10 affected barangays.

The flashfloods were spawned by heavy rains that swelled rivers straddling through the ten barangays, causing them to overflow and spread to low-lying farms.

Most of the flooded barangays are located along the banks of the Paidu Pulangi River and along the Liguasan Marsh, where dozens of rivers that spring from hinterlands in Bukidnon and North Cotabato drain before flowing downstream into the Rio Grande de Mindanao that connects to the Moro Gulf at the western side of Cotabato City.

Kabacan’s municipal social welfare office said more than 2,000 villagers were forced to evacuate to higher grounds.