Floods hit major sections of city

By LITO RULONA, SHIELA MAE BUTLIG and NITZ ARANCON, Correspondents

CAGAYAN de Oro stood still yesterday as its officials and residents watched in horror as floodwaters, the worst since Typhoon Sendong in 2011, rose and submerged urban centers.

The state weather bureau Pagasa issued a “red warning” level in northern Mindanao as a tail-end of a cold front and low pressure area brought heavy rains starting in the afternoon.

Classes have been ordered suspended today in the city and Misamis Oriental.

City hall sounded alarm bells for preemptive evacuations–meaning, residents living near rivers and other bodies of water were advised to flee their homes and seek safer grounds.

Major roads in the city became impassable due to floodwaters that in some areas were shoulder-deep.

At Limketkai center and CM Recto Ave., cars were literally floating.

The vehicular traffic was the nightmare of motorists, and the Roads and Traffic Administration (RTA).

Thousands of residents were stranded for hours as floodwaters hit major sections of Vamenta Blvd. in Carmen, Camaman-an, JR Borja Extension, CM Recto Ave. and the “Galaxy” area in Gusa.

A landslide and a fallen tree caused a major traffic jam on the road near Pryce Plaza.

Blackouts hit several areas during the heavy downpour.

The City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council sent response teams to the Mindanao University of Science and Technology (Must) area, Gumamela Extension, JV Serina and Villarin streets in Carmen, and Gaabucayan-Osmena streets to help flood victims.

Knee-deep floodwaters also hit major sections of Nazareth, Kauswagan, Bulua and Cugman.

Mario Verner Monsanto, CDRRMC overseer, said hundreds of students were stranded at the Must and had to be fetched by response groups.

Mayor Oscar Moreno, who manned a city hall command center, ordered elementary and secondary public schools opened and prepared for evacuations. City hall subsequently ordered preemptive evacuations in the evening before the rains poured down again.

Virgil Lago, CDRRMC head, said city hall had to ask the police and the Army to help.

In Misamis Oriental, Fernando Vincent Dy Jr., head of Provincial Risk Reduction Management Council, said intermittent rains of at least five hours resulted in flooding in some areas in the province.

Some areas in Gingoog City were flooded after the spillways in barangays San Miguel and San Juan-Phase 4 overflowed. Gingoog’s Ilihan creek near the Teacher Village also overflowed brought about by heavy downpour.

In Alubijid town, the approach of a bridge in Sitio Kalanawan in Barangay Sungay was impassable by 4:30 pm yesterday, after it collapsed due to rampaging floodwaters.

By 5 pm, rivers in Tingalan, Nangcaon, and Awang in Gingoog overflowed and flooded surrounding areas with at least waist-deep floodwaters.

According to Josefino Bascug, technical consultant of PDRRMC, the intermittent rains were brought about by the tail-end of a cold front.

Pagasa, in an advisory at 4 pm, said the rains were brought by the tail-end of a cold front and low pressure area that affected northern Mindanao, Caraga, the Zamboanga Peninsula, CompostelaValley, South Cotabato, and Lanao del Sur. Pagasa warned of flashfloods and landslides.

The LPA was estimated based on all data at 130 km west of Cotabato City (7.4°N, 123.1°E) yesterday morning, bringing cloudy skies with moderate to occasionally heavy and thunderstorms even over Palawan and Visayas.