ILIGAN City ― “Backhoes, cranes, and other heavy equipment should be placed near bridges.”
Thus, said former city administrator Leo Zaragoza yesterday as the country braces for the landfall of tropical depression Odette (international name: Rai).
Zaragoza said the City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office must be “proactive” in times like these.
He recalled that during super typhoon Sendong in December of 2011, logs had swept through the city and killed around 5,000 people.
“These backhoes, cranes, and other equipment near bridges could minimize these logs sweeping all over the city along with the floodwaters,” he said. “They would be placed near Tubod bridge, Mandulog bridge, and other bridges in the city.”
To recall, during super typhoon Sendong in 2011, logs swept across the city along with the furious flood waters that devastating houses, and other structures that came across its path.
After the floodwaters subsided the logs were seen, along with corpses that the local government officials led by then-Mayor Lawrence Ll, Cruz, and the people had a hard time dealing with.
It was noted that the logs had come from rivers in upper places, like Kapai, in Lanao Sur and swept down to this city.
