TENTS FOR EVACUEES. The Department of Social Welfare and Development in Soccsksargen installs 15 modular tents as temporary shelters for flood victims in Barangay Lampitak, Tampakan, South Cotabato. One died while 200 families evacuated to safer grounds after flooding spawned by heavy rains inundated several barangays of the town on Saturday (July 16, 2022). (Photo courtesy of DSWD-12)
KORONADAL CITY, South Cotabato – One person died while 394 families were evacuated to safer grounds after flash floods hit an area in this province and another in North Cotabato over the weekend, officials said Monday.
In Tampakan town, some 200 families were evacuated after flash floods caused by a heavy downpour hit several barangays of the municipality on Saturday.
Rolly Doane Aquino, Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office acting head, said the evacuees from Barangay Lampitak are now temporarily staying at a village gymnasium.
“We have one drowning incident in Lampitak,” Aquino said in a radio interview Monday. “The local disaster team of Tampakan has also recorded landslides in the mountainous Barangay of Palo 19.”
Tampakan police identified the victim as Jose Ybañez, 35, a laborer.
He was helping his neighbor to vacate their belongings when he was swept by the strong current of the flood. His body was retrieved Sunday by the rescuers at a quarry site in neighboring village of Buto.
Aquino said the provincial government of South Cotabato provided relief packs to the flood victims.
The Department of Social Welfare and Development in Soccsksargen also distributed modular tents and some 250 food packs to the flood victims in Barangay Lampitak and families in neighboring Lambayong town.
In North Cotabato, an hour and a half heavy downpour also caused flash floods in five barangays in Kidapawan City that affected 194 families.
“We had 144 millimeters of rain for an unprecedented 90 minutes of rain which caused massive flash floods in the central district of the city,” said Psalmer Bernalte, the chief of the Kidapawan City Risk Reduction and Management Office.
Severely affected were residential areas along riverbanks in barangays Sudapin, Balindog, Singao, Kalasuyan and Lanao.
Sudapin had the highest number of affected families at 167 in five sub-villages.
Bernalte said a pregnant woman, an elderly lady, and a minor were trapped inside their house at Old PC Barracks in Sudapin but were rescued by 911 Kidapawan volunteers.
Twenty-three families were also affected by the flash floods in Barangay Balindog, two in Kalasuyan, and one each in Singao and Lanao.
Amid all these, however, no casualties have been reported, Bernalte said.
“Assessment of infrastructure and agriculture damages is still ongoing,” he said, adding the city government distributed relief goods to the affected families. (PNA)
