Mindanaotoday.com | Flood causes traffic jam in eastern CdeO
By: URIEL QUILINGUING
Flooding at the eastern coastal border of Cagayan de Oro Friday night, July 21, caused traffic gridlocks delaying travel for hours, and forced hundreds of residents to seek safer grounds as waterways swelled.
The t-intersection of Iligan-Cagayan de Oro-Butuan Road and Sayre Highway at Puerto village was impassable shortly before 8 p.m. due to moderate to heavy rains brought about by southeast monsoon.
Alae River from nearby Manolo Fortich, Bukidnon that exits at Bugo village, Cagayan de Oro and Agusan Creek that flows to Macajalar Bay passing Zone 3 of Agusan village swelled, thus a four-kilometer stretch of ICRBR was under floodwaters.
Puerto village is situated in between Agusan and Bugo villages of Cagayan de Oro, the latter is at the border of Tagoloan town of Misamis Oriental.
For Jan Albert Araña, who works in a regional government agency in Cagayan de Oro, it took him more than three hours to reach home in Bugo, from what used to be only 45 to 75 minutes trip.
Arana said the bottleneck of traffic flow was at Puerto junction because he was stranded there for over an hour, no movement at all. A radio broadcaster confirmed this in a live report that even a rescue vehicle could not get through.
Truck driver Japhet Jaramillo, a resident of Opol town, Misamis Oriental and an employee of a forwarding services firm, was headed for Davao City via Bukidnon province, but got stuck at Puerto for over two hours.
A Puerto resident, who vented her frustrations on a social media post, said they are getting used to flooding since October 16, last year when their village was inundated by floodwaters.
This time, she said, was successive for two nights that their house is flooded. Intermittent rains due to monsoon rains started Thursday, the downpour usually started late afternoon.
In Bugo, Spencer Cailing, who leads a volunteer group, said there were “87 families were trapped” at lower Balite community about 11 pm. After several attempts, he got an assurance from the City Information Office that rescuers were on their way.
Cailing said they have requested for a backhoe through village council member Ruby Jamero to clear the spillway (bridge made of boxed culvert) at Cabang-asan community that was totally covered by silted materials.
As of 11 pm of Friday, July 21, the City Coordination Center of Cagayan de Oro’s Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Department reported to the Office of Civil Defense-10 there were 58 individuals from 22 families of Agusan and Bugo villages who were affected by flooding.
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