New floods hit storm ravaged region in southern Philippines Tuesday, 27 December 2011 13:24

By BenCyrus G. Ellorin

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT: Rescue workers scrambled to major rice-producing Valencia City in the landlocked province of disaster-battered northern Mindanao Tuesday as heavy rains caused water to breach an irrigation dam releasing millions of cubic meters of water to the already swollen Pulangi River.

Weather forecasters have raised flood warnings in the southern island of Mindanao Monday after a low pressure area and the tail-end of the cold front weather system was expected to dump more than 200mm of rains in the already flooded region.

Philippine Air Force helicopters from Cagayan de Oro and Davao were scrambled early morning Tuesday to assist rescue teams on the ground in extracting more than 300 people perched on rooftops over a wide swath of rice lands in Valencia City.

Valencia City Mayor Leandro Catarata ordered the forced evacuation of riverbank communities around 10 o’clock in the morning after the Pulangi River swelled by more than three meters, flooding populated riverbank communities near the city centre.

More than a thousand people were sent to evacuation centres. As of press time, authorities still cannot confirm if the new floods caused human casualties. Rescue efforts have continued way past sunset Tuesday.

Bukidnon provincial Governor Alexander Calingasan said that heavy rains in the Pulangi River watershed resulted in the breaching of the irrigation dam of the Philippine National Irrigation Authority in Lumbayao village which irrigates thousands of hectares of rice lands.

Pulangi River is the headwater of Mindanao’s biggest river, the Rio Grande de Mindanao that empty in Cotabato City south of the island.

This new deluge came as the pall of gloom in the major port city of Cagayan de Oro and industrial city of Iligan continues as the death toll from the tropical storm Washi floods on Dec. 17 climbed to 1,423 on Monday, with about 2,000 persons still unaccounted for.

More than 60,000 people are now staying in often squalid evacuation centres.

The stench of death pervades the region, a sign that many corpses still remain unrecovered and may be buried in mud and debris, said Ana Caneda, chief of the local civil defence office.

Heavy rains were also reported in the eastern seaboard of Mindanao over the last 24-hours. This weather system according to the Philippine weather bureau may continue in the next two to three days.

This development will further strain scant relief and rehabilitation resources in the developing south east Asian nation which is one of the most disaster prone countries in the world.

In the aftermath of the Washi floods, Pres. Benigno Simeon Aquino II declared a National State of Calamity.

The United Nations has also appealed for U$28-million in humanitarian aid for the victims of the floods from member countries and international aid organizations. (The Peninsula)