BACOLOD CITY - Around 120 families were evacuated from some barangays in the towns of Pontevedra and Binalbagan in Negros Occidental, due to flooding brought about by a heavy downpour late Friday night.
According to Zeaphard Gerhart Caelian, chief of the Provincial Disaster Management Program Division (PDMPD), 107 families or 407 individuals from five barangays in Pontevedra town were affected, and were transferred to various evacuation centers.
The affected households were temporarily sheltered at the day care centers in Barangays DSB Trinidad, San Isidro, San Juan, and barangay hall of Cambarus village.
In Binalbagan town, the Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (MDRRMO) reported that 13 families, or 56 individuals, were also evacuated that night after the water level brought by the heavy rains reached its peak in Taytay Alimango in Barangay San Vicente.
The flooding in these areas were caused by the continuous heavy rains brought by Tropical Depression Dindo, which intensified from a low-pressure area early Saturday morning, the PDMPD said.
The water in some of the affected areas also subsided later that evening and the evacuees returned to their respective houses the following day.