A month’s worth of rain has been dumped in less than one week in Palawan in the Mimaropa (Region 4B) due to the enhanced effects of the southwest monsoon (habagat) and Tropical Depression “Gener,” forcing thousands of people to evacuate, an official of the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) said on Tuesday, Sept. 17.
OCD-Mimaropa Director Eugene Cabrera said the combined effects of habagat and Gener, which developed into a tropical depression last Monday, dumped 316 millimeters of rain in Puerto Princesa City and more than 500 mm of rain in Coron.
“Napakataas na po nito. Ito po ay doble o lagpas na sa doble ng normal na buhos ng ulan sa isang buwan na ibinuhos lamang sa loob ng lima hanggang anim na araw (This is already high. This is double or more than double the normal amount of rainfall in one month which was dumped in just five to six days),” he said.
Around 1,000 families composed of 3,500 individuals evacuated in the province due to the threat of flooding and landslide.
“Right now, there are 18 areas that are flooded. We have received reports that there were damaged roads and bridges, and classes and work in the local government were suspended,” Cabrera said.
Aside from Palawan, the OCD-Mimaropa was also monitoring the situation in Occidental Mindoro which also bore the brunt of habagat and Gener.
“These two provinces, Occidental Mindoro and Palawan, are the ones we are closely monitoring since they received the highest volume of rain,” Cabrera said.
The civil defense director in Region 4B said a pre-emptive evacuation was already conducted in Palawan and Occidental Mindoro.
But several residents opted to stay and guard their homes despite the bad weather, so the decision to enforce a mandatory evacuation lies on the local government units’ hands.
“Most of the residents followed the directive to pre-emptively evacuate but for some who opposed, the final option is mandatory evacuation,” Cabrera said.
The Mimaropa region, according to Cabrera, is composed of 1,400 barangays with 680 villages located in coastal areas.
“This is the scenario that we are in and we are guarding against flooding due to strong rains that may be exacerbated by high tide. We need to evacuate a lot of people. This is a big challenge for us,” he said.
Ferdie, habagat death toll rises; Kanlaon affects 10K families
Meanwhile, the death toll due to the combined effects of habagat and Tropical Storm “Ferdie” increased to 10.
The four new fatalities were recorded in Western Visayas (Region 6).
Previously, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said four people also died in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) and two others perished in Zamboanga Peninsula (Region 9).
OCD-Western Visayas Director Raul Fernandez said the situation of the residents in the region was worsened by the ongoing rumbling of Kanlaon Volcano.
As of writing, a total of 10,451 families were already affected by the volcano’s unrest and the rains. A total of 581 families or 1,867 individuals were staying in evacuation centers.
“We have not yet monitored acid rain but there are mudflows flowing through the water tributaries from the volcano. We have 18 barangays that were affected, mostly in La Castellana and La Carlota in Negros Occidental,” Fernandez said.