ILOILO City – Dozens of villages are expected to bear the brunt of floods that may be brought by incessant rains or typhoons, according to Mayor Jerry Treñas.
“We don’t want this to happen,” the mayor stressed.
According to Treñas, there is a need to act immediately to prevent putting the life of the Ilonggos at risk.
On Monday, he personally checked the water level of the floodway in Barangay Buhang, Jaro district.
The city’s chief executive cited how devastating the previous typhoons were like “Frank” in 2008.
He disclosed that during the meeting with the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), they have identified six additional areas where pumping stations will be needed.
Manual cleanup of the drainage shall be done by the City Engineer’s Office and the DPWH, Treñas said.
“We will be requesting a declogging machine from DPWH so we can clean the existing drainage,” the mayor added.
Meanwhile, a total of 37 families from flood-prone areas in Jaro moved to evacuation centers as typhoon “Quinta” (international name: Molave) poured rains over the metro.
Of the 37 families, nine were from Barangay Simon Ledesma, eight from Barangay Democracia, 14 from Barangay Cubay, and six from Barangay Tabuc Suba.
The affected families were evacuated either in their barangay gymnasium, multipurpose hall, barangay chapel or at their relatives’ houses.
The city government immediately provided them with relief packages to ease their current situation.
“Ginakasubo ko gid ang nadangatan sang aton mga pumuluyo ilabi na gid nga gina atubang naton ang pandemya apang tinguhaan gid sang siyudad nga mabuligan ang aton mga kubos nga mga kasimanwa,” said Treñas.
As of 8 a.m. on Tuesday, the number of evacuees in different evacuation centers already dropped to 27 families or a total of 97 individuals.
Typhoon “Quinta” left the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR) yesterday but its trough or extension is still affecting parts of the country.
A low pressure area (LPA) or potential tropical cyclone outside PAR is also being monitored.
If the LPA becomes a tropical depression within PAR, it would be given the local name “Rolly” as the Philippines’ 18th tropical cyclone for 2020./PN
