ISLA DE ORO DID NOT STAND A CHANCE
[PHOTOS FROM GOOGLE - THE
CAGAYAN RIVERS]
MANILA, DECEMBER 21, 2011 (INQUIRER) By Kristine L.
Alave, Ryan D. Rosauro Inquirer Mindanao - Residents of Isla de Oro, an islet at
the mouth of Cagayan River that was swept away by flash floods from Tropical
Storm "Sendong," did not stand a chance against Mother Nature.
Those of another island at the mouth of the Mandulog River in Iligan City
were also carried away by surging water. Less than a third of the families
living there before the deluge have been accounted for.
Officials said there should be no people on Isla de Oro. Environment
Secretary Ramon Paje said the area was not an island, but a sandbar.
[PHOTO - PANORAMIC VIEW OF ISLA DE ORO VILLAGE BEFORE
'SENDONG']
It was formed by accumulation of sand and silt at the mouth of the Cagayan
River, where the freshwater meets the sea water of Macajalar Bay.
Thus, when Sendong tore through northern Mindanao, Isla de Oro, a densely
populated area of informal settlers, was buffeted by storm surges on one side
and by the formidable flash floods on another side.
"The entire Isla de Oro should not be inhabited," Paje said.
The tragedy that erased Isla de Oro and other coastal villages in Cagayan de
Oro and Iligan, the two cities that were swallowed by murky floodwaters last
weekend when Sendong hit, underlined the need for local governments to heed
geohazard maps, officials said.
Bayug survivors
Survivors from Bayug Island in Iligan feared that many of their fellow
villagers may have perished from the floods.
Perigrina Mantos, emergency program coordinator of the Iligan city
government, said there were at least 341 families on Bayug Island. But of the
341 families, only 100 (families) have so far been accounted for.
Melvin Anggot, city information officer, said the remaining 241 families
could account for at least 1,100 individuals.
The city's social welfare and development office reported that 214 bodies had
been retrieved and 447 others remained missing.
Sleeping
A few survivors told the Inquirer that when the river began to swell, many
residents had been sleeping and had been caught unawares by what was happening.
Although the rains fell continuously for hours, it was just considered a
natural phenomenon. When the strong currents swept in, some residents fought to
survive alongside cows, carabaos, chickens, dogs and pigs.
Some people held on to trees. Some were found dead still holding on to trunks
or branches while the others had broken limbs and crushed heads.
"Most of us were swept away by the raging waters," Lorebel Casillano said.
As of Sunday, Casillano had yet to find her husband, their 10-year-old son
and 2-year-old daughter.
She said that many of them acted too late because they were not expecting the
water to rise that high soon. "We banked on our experience when flood waters
would only go up as high as the waist, and that was a long time ago," Casillano
said.
When water was knee-deep at around midnight, Casillano was still lifting
their things to higher parts of the house.
Within 30 minutes, the water was already waist-deep, prompting her to wake
her two children.
She just pushed both of them to the the roof of a neighbor's house when a
rush of water swept her away. Moments later, she saw the house where her
children had sought refuge also swept away.
Another Bayug Island resident, Janice Macapil, said that her four-member
family just clung to a coconut tree in time for the surge of water along the
Mandulog River.
Casillano and Macapil said the island had more than 300 families spread
across eight puroks (subvillages). In their purok alone, there were some 50
families.
Fire victims
Located at the mouth of Mandulog River, Bayug island had a land area of some
300 hectares. Lately, it hosted a 25-hectare urban poor housing project,
especially those affected by fire in Mahayahay village in October.
But now, the island is a devastated place with scores of dead residents,
houses swept by flash floods, fallen trees and other debris.
Leo Jasareno, chief of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB), which produces
the government's geohazard maps to guide planners and builders, said Isla de Oro
had been designated as critical for being prone to flash floods.
In 2009, officials of Cagayan de Oro asked the Department of Environment and
Natural Resources (DENR) to rezone the area to allow the titling of plots.
Jasareno and Paje said they turned down the request.
Part of river
"It is a sandbar. It is part of the river. Any time in the future, the river
will claim it," Jasareno said.
Paje said the environment department had issued geohazard maps to all
villages. The maps identify areas that are prone to floods and landslides.
The DENR has so far distributed 65,000 maps to the country's 42,000
barangays.
"We are calling on all local government units to please implement the hazard
maps and imbibe it by heart," Paje said. This, he said, would reduce the loss of
lives and properties during extreme weather events.
"We should not fight with nature. We should adapt to it so people will be
saved," Paje said.
Aside from Isla de Oro, a large part of Cagayan de Oro is considered flood
prone. In the geohazard map prepared by the MGB, the coast line and the areas on
both banks of Cagayan River are considered highly susceptible to floods.
Rivers, tributaries
Jasareno said Cagayan de Oro and Iligan were both prone to flash floods.
Not only are they near the shore, the two cities are also riddled with rivers
and tributaries.
The Cagayan River, one of the major drainage systems in Mindanao, traverses
Iligan and Cagayan de Oro. The river's headwaters come from the Kalatungan
Mountain Range in Bukidnon, where it flows northward and empties into the
Macajalar Bay.
The river is known for its strong flow because of its topographic features,
Paje said.
The terrain of the river is uneven. "Some areas are flat, some areas are
steep. The higher the slope, the higher the incidence of flash floods and
landslide," Paje said. With reports from Christine Ortega
and Tito Fiel, Inquirer Mindanao
FROM MANILA TIMES
LGUs ignored warnings inShare0Published : Tuesday,
December 20, 2011 00:00 Article Views
Bureau of Mines sought relocation of people living near Cagayan,
Iligan rivers months ago
THE death toll from the raging muddy floods that washed away entire
communities in the cities of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan in southern Mindanao
would not have been so high if officials of local government units (LGUs) heeded
a recommendation of the Bureau of Mines and Geosciences to relocate people
living in sandy bars and at the mouths of the Cagayan and Iligan rivers.
Close to 700 people were reported dead and hundreds more were missing.
The hardest-hit neighborhoods were shanty villages made from light materials
and built haphazardly atop loose deposits of river sediment, Mines and
Geosciences Bureau official Sevillo David said on Monday.
"When the water rises or there is a flash flood, these [villages] can be
easily swept away," he added.
David, who is in charge of a five-year-old government program to map
hazardous areas, said that the bureau had recommended relocating residents out
of the sandy island bars hit by the floods over the weekend.
But the recommendations, which also included banning buildings within a
kilometer of the mouths of the Cagayan and Iligan rivers as well as dikes, were
not followed.
"In a way, it takes political will to implement some of the recommendations.
If you move people, you need to find a relocation site for them," David said.
Officials are blaming the disaster on a freak storm, poor warning systems,
flimsy buildings and human folly as they struggle to explain one of the
deadliest flash floods to have hit the country.
Entire villages were washed away when tropical storm Sendong whipped Mindanao
island overnight Friday to Saturday, killing more than 650 people, with hundreds
still listed as missing in a trail of flattened homes, broken bridges and
upended vehicles.
Isla de Oro, a community near the Mandulog river in Iligan City, the capital
of Lanao del Norte province, was wiped out when the river overflowed.
Sandwiched between the sea and a wall of mountains, the ports of Cagayan de
Oro, the capital of Misamis Oriental province, and nearby Iligan, both built on
the mouths of major rivers, are natural flood magnets, David said.
"We are a country composed of hills and mountains as well as basins, and we
are also frequently visited by rains and typhoons. Combining these, you can
expect flooding and landslides," he added.
President Benigno Aquino 3rd has ordered a review of the government's
defenses against natural disasters.
Mindanao, the southern third of the Philippine archipelago, is rarely hit by
typhoons that regularly pound the northern island of Luzon every year, and
residents were caught unprepared.
Cagayan de Oro's mayor, Vicente Emano, insisted that city officials had only
learned about the looming storm from the media.
"Mindanao is usually not a typhoon-prone area, that is why most residents
were caught unprepared," Gwendolyn Pang, the secretary-general of the Philippine
Red Cross, said in a statement.
"Climate is changing. We must also change the way we address climate issues,"
she added.
Benito Ramos, head of the government's national disaster management council,
suggested that local officials and residents had ignored warnings of the
approaching storm.
"They were forewarned that these were risky areas. They were aware that they
were in flood-prone areas and most of them are informal settlers," Ramos said.
"They did not move because they had not experienced typhoons like this," he
added.
A month's worth of rainfall, about 180.9 millimeters (7.1 inches), fell over
the region in the 24 hours before the deluge, according to preliminary weather
service estimates.
According to Anthony Lucero, a senior forecaster, most of the heavy rain fell
on mountains inland, generating the raging torrents that flowed down the rivers.
"Those rainfall levels rarely happen," he said, adding that Mindanao as a
whole had been receiving heavier than usual rainfall this year because of La
Nina, a cyclical warming and cooling of Pacific Ocean surface waters.
Agencies mobilized Various government agencies were mobilized to assist in
the search, rescue, retrieval and relief operations in the two cities.
Transportation and Communications Secretary Manuel Roxas 2nd directed the
Philippine Coast Guard, Maritime Industry Authority and Land Transportation
Franchising and Regulatory Board to assist in delivery of relief goods, medical
supplies and other critical cargo in coordination with the Department of Social
Welfare and Development and the Philippine Red Cross.
President Aquino also on Monday ordered all concerned government agencies to
submit their reports on how they prepared for Sendong.
"The President wants to see how our agencies had prepared for the typhoon,"
Malacañang spokesman Edwin Lacierda said during a press briefing.
Mr. Aquino was scheduled to fly today to Mindanao to see the devastation
there.
He will visit evacuation centers in Cagayan de Oro City, Iligan City and
Dumaguete City (Negros Oriental).
Lacierda said that the President wanted to know if mining and illegal logging
were contributory to the killer flash floods.
Reports said that the state weather bureau had failed to issue warnings,
which could have mobilized local agencies to relocate people living in low-lying
areas and those near the river banks to safer and higher grounds.
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2011 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE
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