LEGAZPI CITY--AT LEAST 1,500 FAMILIES have been evacuated Thursday as rains continued to pound areas in Sorsogon, Catanduanes and Albay, bringing floods and landslides, disaster officials said.
The tail end of the cold front continued to bring rains to Southern Luzon and the Visayas for almost a week now.
Domingo Binlayo Sr. was killed in a landslide in Malilipot, Albay, officials reported.
A still unidentified man drowned in floods in a farm in Camalig, Albay.
A fisherman in a boat that sank off the coast Tabaco City was reported missing while Navy divers found a body near Bacacay, Albay on Wednesday.
In Oas, Albay, Salvador Petilla of Barangay San Juan was missing after he was swept away by flood waters.
Jason Aragon, operations officer of the Office of Civil Defense-Bicol, said these reported deaths were still being verified, however.
State of calamity
In Albay, officials were studying if there was a need to place the province in a state of calamity.
Albay Gov. Joey Salceda left it to the discretion of mayors of 15 towns and three cities in the province whether to declare a state of calamity and use 5 percent of their calamity funds.
Salceda said classes in all levels in public and private schools have been suspended.
“The state of readiness of the provincial government is as if there is a calamity but we are not declaring a state of calamity,” Salceda said.
He said authorities issued an advisory for the early evacuation of families living beside rivers or in slopes of mountains not because of lahar but because of flash floods.
Record rainfall
Salceda said as of Wednesday, the accumulated rainfall was already 555 mm, compared to last year’s 88 mm.
“So if the average daily is 120 mm, we might reach 915,” he said.
Salceda said soil saturation was not the only problem, but the amount of rainfall.
He quoted the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration as predicting the rains would last three to five more days.
The OCD reported landslides in Catanduanes but no casualties.
Infrastructure falling
On Tuesday, 14 road sections were blocked by debris in Catanduanes. The Department of Public Works and Highways cleared the sections Wednesday.
Rivers were swollen in Caramoran and Viga towns.
In Viga, landslides were noted in the town proper.
In Legazpi City, 20 families were evacuated to safer ground in the villages due to flooding.
Also in the city and in neighboring town of Daraga, at least eight roads were flooded but still passable. Ephraim Aguilar, Inquirer Southern Luzon
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