2 Bulacan towns brace for more flooding

HAGONOY, Bulacan , Philippines   â€“ For the second time in less than two months, residents of Calumpit and Hagonoy towns are bracing for more flooding.

This time, the floodwaters would come from Pampanga River as these drain into Manila Bay. Like the floods that hit both towns last August, these will be aggravated by sea level rise or high tide. 

A phenomenon that hit both towns more than 10 times in the last 10 years, backfloods occur a day or a few days after intense rainfall in Central Luzon provinces.

Hilton Hernando, head of the Pampanga River Flood Forecasting and Warning Center (PRFFWC), said backfloods are natural occurrences in the region, given its topography.

Hernando said Central Luzon is bordered by mountain ranges in the east and west, and at the middle is the flood plain with river tributaries draining into Manila Bay.

As the primary agency that monitors rainfall run-offs along the Pampanga River Basin from Aurora in the east to Bulacan and Pampanga in the west, the PRFFWC has installed rain and flood gauges along the Pampanga River.

The weather instruments allow the center to monitor the amounts of rainfall and their run-offs into the rivers.

Comparing rainfall data in August, Hernando said Typhoon Santi poured more rainfall last Friday, which meant higher water elevation at the Candaba and Sulipan stations that would result in backfloods to Calumpit and Hagonoy.

“Based on our records, we will have backfloods in Calumpit and Hagonoy until Tuesday,” he said, adding that the floodwaters may be as deep as those in August.

As of yesterday morning, at least 12 villages here and another 10 in Calumpit town were still flooded. However, by noon, floodwaters in some villages had receded.

For her part, Liz Mungcal, head of the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, said the effects of the backfloods would be shorter and temporary, although this depends on weather conditions in the next few days, as another typhoon is expected. 

Meanwhile, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has started distributing relief supplies to augment resources of local government units in Central Luzon heavily hit by Typhoon Santi.

As of yesterday, the DSWD said total assistance to Central Luzon (Region 3) amounted to P1,451,488.86.

Some 8,000 family food packs worth P2.04 million were transported by three trucks of the World Food Program from the DSWD-National Resource Operations Center in Pasay City to the DSWD-Field Office III to be distributed to affected areas in the region.

As of yesterday morning, the DSWD said Santi affected 59,124 families or 271,091 people in Aurora, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Tarlac, and Bulacan. Of the number, 2,255 families or 10,018 people are temporarily housed in evacuation centers.

In Isabela, a flood alert has been raised in 10 low-lying and flood-prone areas, as the Magat Dam has continued to release 1,000 cubic meters per second water since Saturday noon following rains spawned by Santi.

Engineer Florentino Banigued, head of the Magat Dam and Reservoir Division of the National Irrigation Administration, said the move was meant to prevent the overflow of the dam’s reservoir, whose water elevation reached 191.99 meters or 1.1 meter shy of the critical level of 193 meters at noon yesterday.

Senior Superintendent Sotero Ramos, Isabela police director, said although the typhoon signal has been lifted, the flood alert continued to be in effect. Placed under close watch for potential flooding are San Pablo, Sto. Tomas, Sta. Maria, Delfin Albano, Cabagan, Tumauini, Ramon, and San Mateo towns, and the cities of Cauayan and Ilagan. – With Rainier Allan Ronda, Raymund Catindig, Charlie Lagasca