VERUELA, Agusan del Sur (MindaNews / 19 January) — The inland town of Veruela in Agusan del Sur has remained submerged after enduring four consecutive days of relentless rainfall brought by a shear line, affecting 12 of its 20 villages.
Clyde Bonita, Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (MDRRM) Officer, reported that water from the Agusan River began to overflow on Monday night, engulfing the low-lying villages.
Since land vehicles could not pass through the flood waters rescue teams from the MDRRM Office, local police, and the 60th Infantry Battalion had to use motorized bancas to deliver relief goods such as 5-kilogram bags of rice, canned sardines, meat loaves, corned beef, and sachets of coffee.
Affected households have sought refuge in the dry homes of relatives, receiving food packs there since even evacuation centers in public school buildings were also inundated.
The Sangguniang Bayan of Veruela has placed the town under a state of calamity through Resolution No. 199 Series of 2024.
Mayor Myrna Mondejar issued a memorandum extending the suspension of classes in all levels in both public and private schools and work in government offices in the heavily affected villages of Binongan, Poblacion, and San Gabriel.
The order will remain in effect until floodwaters recede. As of Friday, there were no plans to lift the suspension, which started on Wednesday.
“This is the worst flooding we’ve experienced in a decade,” Bonita said in a mobile phone interview with Mindanews. He said 70-80 percent of the floodwaters originate from higher areas in the Magdiwata Mountain Range in neighboring Davao de Oro province.
He said the continuous heavy rains have caused a significant amount of water to cascade into the Agusan Marsh as a catchment area. “We absorb all the flood waters coming from the mountain,” he explained.
He added that while agri-industrial development, particularly banana plantations, may have boosted the economy in the neighboring towns of Davao de Oro, it has also led to severe flooding in the towns of Agusan del Sur located along the banks of the Agusan River and the marshland.
The flooded villages included San Gabriel, Binongan, Poblacion, La Fortuna, Don Mateo, Magsaysay, Sampaguita, Sinobong, Del Monte, Limot, Sta. Emilia, and Bacay II.
Several road networks remained impassable in the affected areas of the national highway.
The secondary national highway connecting Bunawan town and Veruela was not passable even for large trucks.
The national highway connecting Barangay Katipunan in Veruela and Barangay Binucayan in Loreto town was only accessible to single motorcycles due to a portion of the road washed out by a landslide.
Bonita warned it was not safe for any type of vehicle to use Sitio Palo bridge in the poblacion, as it could be swept away by the rampaging floodwaters. (Chris V. Panganiban/MindaNews)
