Mindanaotoday.com | 5 persons missing in Bukidnon landslide; flood displaces 762 families in Oro
By: Uriel Quilinguing
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – Three road maintenance workers and an elderly couple were reportedly buried alive when a landslide occurred shortly past noon Monday, October 17, in San Luis village, Malitbog town of Bukidnon.
The three were Municipal Engineering Office employees who had just cleared the road from rocks and mud deposits caused Sunday night’s heavy rains at Mabuhay community when the avalanche happened.
They were resting at a house nearby at that time of the incident, according to Mayor Gary Casiño, who supervised the search, rescue and retrieval operations Tuesday (October 18) morning when two backhoes from private entities arrived.
Casiño named the three municipal personnel as Nerio Talines, backhoe operator; Raffy Simprota, dump truck driver; and Jordan Achas, helper.
The couple was Lucresio Lauronal and Angelita Cabanday Lauronal, as identified online by niece Miesul Higyawan who has been getting updates online.
Cagayan de Oro-based radio broadcaster Roldan Sagosa, a former municipal council member, said Mabuhay is a dead spot for sending electronic messages.
Meanwhile, in Cagayan de Oro, floodwaters forced almost three thousand residents from two coastal villages in eastern Cagayan de Oro to flee for safety since Sunday (October 16) night.
By Monday morning, the City Social Welfare and Development Office has profiled 2,968 individuals of 762 displaced families sheltered in four evacuation centers (ECs).
Bugo National High School, Cagayan de Oro Bugo School of Arts and Trades (COBSAT), Puerto Covered Court, and Suntingon Elementary School were converted as ECs.
In an unnumbered executive order issued Sunday night, Mayor Rolando “Klarex” A. Uy directed school heads to suspend the holding of classes in Bugo and Puerto starting Monday until the directive is lifted.
Last Sunday afternoon, the regional weather bureau at El Salvador City, in its 5 pm forecast warned of thunderstorms induced by a trough of super-typhoon Neneng that was then spotted, 3 pm, 190 km off Cagayan province.
But by that time, over five kilometers stretch of Iligan-Cagayan de Oro-Butuan highway across Bugo and Puerto villages was already impassable to motor vehicles since the downpour started shortly past noon.
Commuters were stranded on both ends of the flooded road, extending as far as Casinglot village in nearby Tagoloan town, Misamis Oriental.
Residential and commercial buildings along the road in the two densely-populated villages were inundated. Power supply was cut off.
Three thunderstorm advisories by the weather forecasting agency were released, but the first which was at 12 noon did not include Cagayan de Oro and Misamis Oriental and on its warning of flash floods. The succeeding two, at 1:30 pm and 3:50 pm did.
Just past noon, heavy rains in Manolo Fortich, Libona and Baungon of Bukidnon province were reported and several villages of these towns are situated along the border of Cagayan de Oro.
Worst hit was Zone 4 of Bugo, as shown in video and photos posted online late afternoon by a certain Efren Batucan, and these were shared multiple times by netizens. The video captured the six-lane national highway at Bugo totally under submerged.
By 6:30 pm, City Information Officer Ivy Guantero announced two ECs have already been activated, that of Puerto CC and COBSAT. Both have community kitchens where evacuees could do the cooking.
Guantero said teams from the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Department (CDRRMD) – Oro Rescue were in the two villages at the onset of the flood and responded to calls for assistance.
But she could not confirm of a fatality due to the flood, reportedly a former security guard who was declared dead-on-arrival at the City Hospital-Puerto, saying details of the incident has not reached the CDRRMD yet.
Meanwhile, Nazareth village council member Felipe Abrogar, who his way home to Cagayan de Oro, passed through Bugo past 9 pm after more than four hours of waiting in Tagoloan town for the floodwaters to recede.
Engr. Nestor Abonitalla, a retired health agency employee, was headed east but had to stay with his relative in Puerto for hours because the road was impassable.
For Eugene Mesias, who heads the programs and services division of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration-10 and a resident of Bugo, last Sunday was a very long day since he left his house early for a dawn liturgical mass at the St. Augustine Cathedral. (MT)
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