More than 51,000 people have been evacuated in the Caraga region as a precautionary measure for the widespread flooding and other threats from the onslaught of tropical storm ‘Auring’.
The Office of Civil Defense said the evacuated 51,445 people from 13,723 families are now staying in a total of 331 evacuation centers set up across the regions.
Most of the evacuees are from from Surigao del Norte and Surigao del Sur. Hundreds of evacuees were also reported in Agusan del Norte, Dinagat Islands and Butuan City.
A total of 1,246 people were also evacuated from 10 barangays of Davao de Oro while 75 more people were reported to have been moved to safe areas in Davao Oriental.
As of Sunday morning, local OCD officials said the province of Surigao del Norte, Surigao del Sur and Dinagat Islands were experiencing heavy downpour.
Local government units in Caraga have been conducting preemptive evacuation since February 18 after weather forecasters warned of heavy rains that would be dumped by ‘Auring’.
Based on the local OCD data, a total of 224 barangays are now affected by flooding in Caraga region.