AT least 800 families have been displaced by floods in the Western Visayas and Bicol regions in the past days.
The floods, caused by rains brought by the tail-end of a frontal system and the northeast monsoon, prompted the declaration of a state of calamity in Talisay City in Negros Occidental.
The Camp Aguinaldo-based National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC), citing reports from its field office in Western Visayas, said about 7,600 families or some 37,830 persons from Negros Occidental were affected by the floods.
The figure includes 830 families who went on preemptive evacuation in Valencia City.
The NDRRMC said that in Silay City, also in Negros Occidental, two bridges are impassable to vehicles due to flooding. In Talisay City, a road section was closed after sustaining damage while a riprap collapsed.
It also said the PNP has deployed personnel for relief and search and rescue operations and for the conduct of patrols in the affected areas.
In Bicol, 21 families or 92 persons were evacuated due to floods in Camarines Sur, caused by rains brought by the northeast monsoon, according to Gremil Naz, information officer of the Office of Civil Defense-Bicol region.
Naz said 61 flooding and eight landslide incidents have been reported in Camarines Sur, Sorsogon, and Catanduanes.
Naz said the flooding incidents were due to the overflowing of spillways.
Naz said OCD-Bicol remains on alert because the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) said the region will continue to experience rains.
In a 4 p.m. bulletin issued yesterday, PAGASA said the Visayas, Palawan, Surigao del Norte and Dinagat Island will have cloudy skies with scattered rain showers and thunderstorms due to the tail-end of the frontal system.
Cagayan Valley, Cordillera Administrative Region, Bicol Region, and Aurora and Quezon provinces will have cloudy skies with light rains due to the northeast monsoon.
Metro Manila and rest of Luzon will have partly cloudy skies with isolated light rains due to the northeast monsoon.
The rest of Mindanao, PAGASA said, will have partly cloudy to cloudy skies with isolated rain showers due to localized thunderstorm.
The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) said P1.58 million worth of relief and financial assistance have been released to some 17,000 affected families in the Bicol and Western Visayas regions.
Of the P1.58-million aid, P323,300 came from the department, P1.241 million from local government units, and P20,500 from private donors. — With Jocelyn Montemayor
