Only motorcycles can pass the Sumbiling-Bulilyan Road in Barangay Sumbiling, Bataraza, southern Palawan in the aftermath of tropical depression Urduja late Monday afternoon. (Photo courtesy of MBLT4)
PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, Palawan – Relief and clearing operations are ongoing here in the wake of tropical depression “Urduja”, said the head of the City Disaster Risk Reduction Managemen Office (CDRRMO) on Tuesday morning.
CDRRMO head Earl Timbancaya said both operations would continue until evacuated families are all able to go back to their homes, and roads and waterways had been emptied of rubble.
At the height of “Urduja” onslaught Monday morning, 152 families were displaced, 13 barangays were under floodwaters, roads were rendered impassable, and classes were cancelled.
Of the total number of relocated families, 100 were evacuated from low-lying areas of Barangay Tiniguiban, a university community in Puerto Princesa and 40 from Barangay Sicsican, a known vegetable-growing area.
As of press time, only 20 families from Tiniguiban remain in the temporary shelters. The evacuees were brought to the city coliseum and their barangay halls.
Puerto Princesa Mayor Lucilo Bayron had ordered the CDRRMO through the City Social Welfare and Development Office to take care of the food needs of the evacuees, said Timbancaya.
The CDRRMO situation report also logged two landslides in Barangays Napsan and Langogan, but Timbancanya said no one was reported trapped nor injured.
A bridge in Sitio Busngol, Barangay Sta. Lourdes was also washed out by the flood. The said bridge connects the small village to Sta. Lourdes main, he said.
The City Engineering Office had sent a team to the area to assess the situation and see how villagers can be helped, said the CDRRMO chief.
As of 9:40 a.m. Tuesday, Urduja’s heavy rains hit southern Palawan, where the provincial office of the Department of Education (DepEd) already cancelled classes in all levels.
“Classes in all levels are now suspended in Aborlan, Balabac, Narra, Brooke’s Point, and Sofronio Española,” said DepEd-Palawan spokesperson Daisy Anne Atrero.
In Bataraza, the last mainland municipality in the southern area of the province, Capt. Wanel Ansa, environment unit and civil affairs officer of the Marine Battalion Landing Team 4, said the Barangay Sumbiling Road going to Barangay Buliluyan is inaccessible.
Buliluyan is where the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) is currently rehabilitating and expanding port facilities for the trade route between Palawan and Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia under the BIMP-EAGA.
In northern Palawan, Provincial Information Officer Gil Acosta Jr. said Governor Jose Alvarez already ordered Monday afternoon the delivery of food support to affected homes in Barangays Caramay and Aporawan in the flood-prone town of Roxas.
Acosta added the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office (PDRRMO) has been conducting relief operations since Monday in the Calamianes Islands Group and Cuyo Islands. (PNA)
Featured photo by Diana Ross Cetenta
