COTABATO City (MindaNews / 13 Oct) – More than 2,000 residents have been advised to evacuate Wednesday in two villages of Sultan Mastura, Maguindanao at the height of a flash brought by continuous rains.
Myrna Jo Henry, information officer of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao’s Humanitarian Emergency Action Response Team (ARMM-HEART), said they immediately deployed a rescue team from the operation center in Cotabato City by 10 a.m. to 30 households trapped in a six-feet deep flood in the villages of Solon and Tariken.
“They rescued first the senior citizens and then the children and brought them to higher grounds as strong current of flood water came in,” Henry said, adding that but some opted to stay in their homes to watch over their belongings.
Due to heavy rains brought by a low pressure area (LPA) felt in most parts of the region, the Simuay River, a major tributary that connects streams from the ranges of North Cotabato and Maguindanao, has overflowed.
As of Wednesday afternoon, 474 families or 2,370 individuals have been affected by the floods in Sultan Mastura.
In Datu Montawal town, floods have been monitored in nine villages, which reportedly damaged crops.
There were also reported floods in the municipalities of Pagalungan, Shariff Saydona Mustapha, Datu Salibo and Datu Piang as rains raised the volume water in the Liguasan Marsh, which serves as catch basin of flood waters in the area.
“At the moment those affected families in Sultan Mastura are staying with their relatives in higher grounds,” Henry. (Ferdinandh Cabrera / MindaNews)
