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[av_heading heading=’CAPIZ CLASSES SUSPENDED ‘Agaton’ dumps torrential rains ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=” av-medium-font-size-title=” av-small-font-size-title=” av-mini-font-size-title=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” admin_preview_bg=”]
BY CAROLYN JANE ABELLO
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ILOILO City – After a long holiday break, classes in public and private schools in Capiz province were supposed to resume today. But these were suspended anew due to heavy rains and flooding.
Yesterday afternoon, Capiz governor Antonio del Rosario ordered the suspension of classes in all levels today. On its way to Palawan province, tropical depression “Agaton” dumped torrential rains in Capiz.
According to Esperidion Pelaez of the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRRMO), 117 of Capiz’s 473 barangays were inundated. These barangays were in the municipalities of Maayon, Sigma, Cuartero, Mambusao, Dumalag, Dao,Panit-an, Pontevedra, Dumarao, Panay, and Tapaz.
Only Capiz among Western Visayas’ six provinces was considerably inconvenienced by “Agaton”, according to the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) and the Regional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (RDRRMC).
The PDRRMO reported 152 displaced families moving to designated evacuation centers of affected municipalities.
In Dao, Capiz as of 2 p.m. yesterday, the OCD and RDRRMC recorded 15 displaced families (57 individuals) in the villages of Poblacion Ilaya, Balucuan and Poblacion Ilawod. They sought shelter at Dao Central Elementary School and the barangay halls of Balucuan and Poblacion Ilawod.
In the municipality of Mambusao, four displaced persons found it safer to temporarily stay at Pangpang Sur’s barangay hall while in Dumalag town, 10 displaced families (33 individuals) temporarily moved to either barangay halls or residences of relatives.
According to the PDRRMO, Mambusao and Sigma were “catch basins” hence prone to flooding during torrential rains.
“Agaton” is expected to leave the Philippine area of Responsibility this afternoon, according to the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa).
In its 5 p.m. update yesterday, Pagasa said “Agaton” was expected to make its sixth landfall in the vicinity of Palawan last night, bringing moderate to heavy rains. Signal No. 1 was up in Palawan, including Cuyo Island.
“Agaton” made landfalls over Socorro and Claver, Surigao del Norte; Jagna, Bohol; Santander, Cebu; and, Bais City, Negros Oriental yesterday.
In Iloilo City, the Philippine Coast Guard suspended the trips of seagoing vessels – fast crafts and roll on, and roll off ships from Iloilo to Bacolod City and vice versa, Iloilo to Cebu, Negros and Manila – early yesterday (5 a.m.) but ordered the resumption of their operations by 2 p.m.
It allowed motorboats plying the Iloilo City-Guimaras route to continue operating but reduced their passenger capacity to 75 percent.
Pelaez of Capiz’s PDRRMO said teams from the Capiz Emergency Response Team, 61st Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army’s 3rd Infantry Division, Philippine National Police, and Bureau of Fire Protection were deployed to Sigma and Pontevedra.
He also said the national road going to Aklan province from Sigma to Mambusao became impassable and vehicles were forced to take the Ivisan to Sipian roads.
On Monday, the Philippine Coast Guard cancelled boat trips from Roxas City to Masbate while small fishing boats were not allowed to venture out to the sea. (With a report from the Philippine News Agency/PN)
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